Nigeria, March 21 -- Despite the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) efforts to improve yields in the last two auctions, demand for Nigeria's one-year treasury notes, or T-bills, has steadily declined.

The CBN unexpectedly added a second auction event on Wednesday to its calendar. As the market continued to be impacted by liquidity limitations, rates on one-year T-bills increased for the second straight time at this surprise auction, rising from 22.52 percent to 24.90 percent.

For the first time since May 2020, this increase has produced a positive real return of 1.72%.

However, compared to N1.5 trillion at the first auction of 2024, demand for the one-year bill fell sharply to N861 billion on Wednesday, its lowest level this year. This is...