The Federal Government, through the Debt Management Office (DMO), has opened subscriptions for N750bn worth of Federal Government of Nigeria bonds for March 2026.
Details contained in the March 2026 bond offer circular published on the DMO’s website on Wednesday showed that the offer consists of three re-opened bond instruments.
The breakdown includes N250bn for the 17.945 per cent FGN August 2030 bond, N200bn for the 17.95 per cent FGN June 2032 bond, and N300bn for the 19.89 per cent FGN May 2033 bond, bringing the total offer to N750bn.
According to the circular, the bond auction is scheduled for March 30, 2026, while settlement is fixed for April 1, 2026.
The bonds will be issued through a competitive auction process, where investors submit bids based on yield-to-maturity. However, the coupon rates will remain unchanged since the instruments are re-openings of previously issued bonds.
The new offer comes amid continued fiscal pressures and rising domestic borrowing needs, as the government relies heavily on the local debt market to finance budget deficits and refinance maturing obligations.
A month-on-month comparison shows that the government reduced its bond offer by N50bn from the N800bn offered in February 2026.
In February, the DMO offered N400bn for the 17.95 per cent June 2032 bond, N300bn for the 19.89 per cent May 2033 bond, and N100bn for the 19.00 per cent February 2034 bond.
The slightly lower offer size in March suggests a more cautious borrowing approach, which analysts say may reflect improved liquidity conditions driven by higher oil prices, as well as efforts to limit rising debt service costs.
There was also a change in the composition of the instruments. While the February offer included a longer-tenor 2034 bond, the March issuance focuses mainly on mid-tenor bonds, particularly the 2030 and 2032 instruments.
Despite the reduction in the borrowing size, interest rates remain high, highlighting the elevated cost of domestic debt.
The March offer carries coupon rates of 17.945 per cent for the 2030 bond, 17.95 per cent for the 2032 bond, and 19.89 per cent for the 2033 bond, largely in line with the levels seen in the previous month.
Although the bonds are re-openings and the final borrowing costs will be determined by stop rates at the auction, prevailing coupon benchmarks suggest yields are likely to remain near current levels unless liquidity or inflation expectations shift significantly.
Analysts note that the sustained high-rate environment reflects tight financial conditions, even as the Central Bank of Nigeria has begun gradually easing monetary policy.
For the government, this means continued pressure on debt servicing, with interest payments already accounting for a significant share of national revenue.
