Investor appetite for Federal Government bonds weakened in May 2026 as total subscriptions dropped by 45.6 per cent month-on-month, despite rising yields at the auction.
Data released by the Debt Management Office showed that total market subscriptions fell to N516.17bn in May from N947.99bn recorded in April.
At the May 18 auction, the DMO offered N300bn each for the reopened 22.60 per cent FGN January 2035 bond and the 16.2499 per cent FGN April 2037 bond. The 10-year paper attracted subscriptions worth N262.23bn, while the 20-year bond recorded N253.94bn in bids.
This represented a significant decline from April, when investors submitted a combined N947.99bn in subscriptions across the 5-year, 7-year, and 10-year instruments auctioned by the DMO.
The April auction recorded subscriptions of N181.94bn for the 5-year bond, N167.04bn for the 7-year paper, and N599.02bn for the 10-year instrument. Despite weaker demand, the government raised rates at the auction. The 10-year bond cleared at a marginal rate of 17.00 per cent in May, higher than the 16.59 per cent recorded on the same tenor in April, while the 20-year paper cleared at 17.04 per cent.
