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CBN raises N804.85bn at OMO auction amid strong investor demand

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) successfully raised N804.85 billion at its Open Market Operations (OMO) auction, driven by strong investor appetite for high-yield, long-tenor securities amidst excess liquidity and elevated inflation expectations.

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CBN OMO auction

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) successfully raised N804.85 billion at its Open Market Operations (OMO) auction, driven by strong investor appetite for high-yield, long-tenor securities amidst excess liquidity and elevated inflation expectations

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) successfully auctioned N804.85 billion worth of Open Market Operations (OMO) bills on Monday, April 29, 2025, demonstrating continued strong investor interest in high-yield securities.

Also read: AICL hosts fifth post-summit roundtable to drive strategic investments, development

The auction witnessed total subscriptions of N1.057 trillion, indicating an oversubscription rate of 111 per cent.

While robust, the total amount raised was slightly lower than the N1.008 trillion raised at the previous auction on April 25, which saw subscriptions totaling N1.391 trillion for two N500 billion bills.

In the latest auction, the CBN offered two long-tenor instruments: a 329-day bill and a 350-day bill, each with an offer size of N250 billion.

Notably, investor demand was significantly skewed towards the longer 350-day bill, maturing on April 14, 2026, which attracted subscriptions of N923.60 billion, more than three times the offered amount.

The CBN allotted N698.60 billion of this bill at a stop rate of 22.73 per cent, with bid rates ranging from 22.4990 per cent to 22.9700 per cent.

This strong interest reflects market confidence in Nigeria’s sovereign debt and expectations of sustained elevated interest rates.

Conversely, the 329-day bill, maturing on March 24, 2026, experienced more muted demand, receiving subscriptions of N133.25 billion, just over half of the N250 billion offered.

The CBN allotted N106.25 billion of this shorter-tenor bill at a slightly lower stop rate of 22.69 per cent, with bid rates ranging between 22.3200 per cent and 22.8900 per cent.

The consistent strong demand for longer-dated securities underscores market expectations that the CBN will maintain its hawkish monetary policy stance to combat inflation and stabilize the naira.

This trend of investors favouring longer tenors to maximize yields has been evident in recent OMO auctions.

The heightened demand for OMO bills occurs against a backdrop of rapidly expanding broad money supply in Nigeria.

According to the CBN’s latest data, broad money (M3) increased by 3.2 per cent month-on-month to N114.22 trillion in March 2025, and by 24 per cent year-on-year.

Despite the CBN maintaining a high Cash Reserve Ratio and benchmark interest rate, liquidity in the financial system remains elevated, posing ongoing challenges for monetary tightening efforts.

Headline inflation also rose to 24.23 per cent in March 2025, further fueling demand for high-yield instruments.

OMO auctions remain a critical tool for the CBN in managing excess liquidity and anchoring short-term interest rates, while also signaling its monetary policy direction and moderating speculative pressures in the financial markets.

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Shoreline Group secures US$200 million Afreximbank Facility

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Shoreline Group today announced that African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has approved a US$200 million facility in favour of Shoreline Power Company Limited and co-borrowers including Arkad S.p.A., Shoreline’s majority-owned engineering and construction platform.
Approved in June 2026, the facility was arranged and provided by Afreximbank as sole mandated lead arranger and lender. It provides bonding and working-capital capacity for Arkad’s delivery of the Hassi Bir Rekaiz project and supports Shoreline and its affiliates in developing further pipeline and infrastructure
projects in Nigeria and other permitted jurisdictions.
“This is a defining transaction for Shoreline and Arkad. We built Arkad as an African- sponsored engineering platform capable of competing at the highest level, and it is now delivering against a billion-dollar energy contract. Afreximbank’s US$200 million commitment gives the platform the financial strength to match its engineering capability and pursue further major infrastructure mandates. It demonstrates that African enterprises can assemble the capital, capability and partnerships required to compete for infrastructure at international scale.”
Hassi Bir Rekaiz Phase 2a Arkad holds 44 per cent of the approximately US$1 billion EPCCS-1 contract awarded by Groupement
Hassi Bir Rekaiz (GHBR) to an unincorporated consortium led by Egypt’s Petrojet, which holds 56 percent. EPCCS-1 covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up for the Phase 2a central processing facility and related infrastructure at the Hassi Bir Rekaiz field in Algeria’s Berkine
Basin.
GHBR is the joint operating entity for the licence, held by Sonatrach with 51 per cent and Thailand’s PTTEP with 49 per cent. The project includes a new crude oil processing facility with capacity of 31,500 barrels per day, facilities for associated gas and produced-water treatment, approximately 217 kilometres
of pipelines and the brownfield modifications required to integrate existing Phase 1 infrastructure.
The facilities are designed to support later expansion to 63,000 barrels per day under Phase 2b.
“This financing addresses the instruments that determine whether an EPC contractor can execute at scale: performance guarantees, advance payment guarantees and working capital through the project cycle. Hassi Bir Rekaiz is a demanding scope, combining a new central processing facility, associated treatment systems, pipelines and brownfield integration. With Petrojet, and with the support of Shoreline and Afreximbank, Arkad is focused on disciplined delivery against the project’s safety, quality and schedule requirements.”
The transaction was structured under Afreximbank’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction Initiative, which supports African engineering and construction firms with the financial instruments required to compete for and execute large infrastructure contracts. Afreximbank also supported the Arkad-Petrojet partnership through its EPC twinning work at the Intra-African Trade Fair held in Algiers
in 2025.
According to Afreximbank, the transaction is its first support for a Sub-Saharan African contractor undertaking a major infrastructure project in North Africa. For Shoreline, it demonstrates a practical model for combining African ownership and capital with established international engineering andindustrial capability.

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BUSINESSWOMAN AISHA ACHIMUGU SPEAKS OUT, CALLS FOR PROTECTION OF LIFE AND RESPECT FOR RULE OF LAW

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Nigerian businesswoman and investor Aisha Achimugu has made a public appeal for the protection of her life, her family, and her business interests while alleging a sustained campaign of intimidation, media trial, and asset seizures.

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Achimugu, in a statement Tuesday, said she is facing actions that she described as an affront to the rule of law and natural justice.
She then called for the respect for court orders and for an end to what she termed misleading media coverage about her person and companies.
According to Achimugu, the widow of the late Engr. Sulaiman Achimugu, former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, she has over the last three decades built businesses in the oil and gas and other sectors, and runs the SAM Empowerment Foundation, SEF, which she said has implemented health, education, and community projects across Nigeria.
The businesswoman, however, alleged that since 2023 she has been the subject of investigations and actions by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Narrating her ordeals, Achimugu noted that in 2023, the EFCC’s Port Harcourt zonal office froze her personal accounts, her children’s accounts, and company accounts linked to the Felak Group, based on an interim forfeiture order.
She said this was connected to a mistaken association with MBA Forex and Capital Investment.
Achimugu stated that in January 2024 she honoured an EFCC invitation with her counsel, clarified her company’s single transaction with MBA Forex, and refunded N58 million by bank draft to the EFCC recovery account.
In March 2025, the businesswoman said she received WhatsApp messages inviting her to the EFCC Port Harcourt office. Her lawyer responded in writing, proposing dates in April 2025. Despite this, she alleged a media campaign began on March 10, 2025 linking her to wrongdoing.
On March 28, 2025, the same day her company, Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited, submitted proof of $20 million payment to NUPRC for oil blocks PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007, subsequently, she claimed the EFCC declared her a “Wanted Person” for “conspiracy and money laundering.” She also alleged that EFCC operatives searched her home that day.
In April 2025, Achimugu said she filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. But upon returning to Nigeria on April 28, 2025 from a foreign trip, she alleged she was taken into EFCC custody, granted bail by a judge, but released five days later. She also said her international passport was collected.
She alleged further asset actions, including freezing of bank accounts, and the seizure of vehicles from her home in January 2026. She said matters relating to these actions are the subject of ongoing litigation and appeals.
Achimugu also alleged that her United States visa was revoked in April 2025, and that she encountered issues with visa processing related to her Grenadian citizenship, which she linked to media reports citing the EFCC’s declaration.
Achimugu stated that she has invested nearly $90 million in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in the last five years and has attracted over $100 million in investments into the economy while directly employs close to 200 Nigerians.
However, she said the actions of the anti-graft agency have affected her business operations, international partnerships, and family, including her elderly parents and young children.
Achimugu then called on the National Assembly, the Judiciary, security services, and local and international human rights organizations to examine her case.
She also asked for the protection of her life and properties, respect for court orders, and an end to what she described as a “media trial”.
“I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and I am not afraid to face the law provided due process is followed. My lawyers are pursuing all legal remedies locally and internationally,” she said.
Achimugu added that she remains committed to Nigeria and to supporting private sector growth.

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Nigeria’s Credit Crisis: Why Firms Still Struggle for Loans

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Nigeria’s Credit Crisis deepens as businesses struggle with high lending rates, weak bank credit access and government borrowing despite falling inflation (more…)

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