Interbank Rates Steady On Limited Lending

Inter Bank interest rates remained unchanged at 3.16 per cent on average last week due to limited lending between banks, traders said. The Open Buy Back (OBB) was flat at 2.5 per cent, below the Central Bank’s 6.0 per cent benchmark interest rate. Over night placement was also unchanged at 3.0 per cent, while call money traded flat at 4.0 per cent, traders said”.

“Activity in the market remains low since the beginning of the year. There are no significant transactions going on among banks now”, one dealer said.

Dealers said the market had a surplus of over 300 billion naira ($2.02 billion) and expected it to remain as liquid this week.

The Central Bank sold a little over $200 million at its bi-weekly auction this week, which was not significant enough to drain liquidity in the system.

“We can only see more liquidity next week, but there won’t be much activity to alter the prevailing trend in the market”, a second dealer said.