Ethiopian treasury bills, from NBE auction to ESX

The auction

The National Bank of Ethiopia sells treasury bills on behalf of the Ministry of Finance in 28, 91, 182 and 364-day terms. In NBE's published results since August 2024, auctions are almost always two weeks apart and held on a Wednesday (50 of 52), settling the next day. A bill pays no interest: it is sold below its face value and repays the full face value at maturity, and the difference is the return.

How the auction works

Bidders state an amount and the price they will pay per 100 birr of face value. NBE accepts bids from the highest price down until the amount offered is filled or the bids run out. The lowest accepted price is the cut-off price; the weighted-average price averages all accepted bids by amount.

Reading the results

NBE publishes, for each term, the amount offered, bids received, the amount accepted, the cut-off yield (the highest yield accepted) and the weighted-average yield of accepted bids. When bids received exceed the amount offered, the bid cover is above 1×. See the latest results and history.

On ESX

Issued bills are listed on ESX, where they can be traded until their last trading day, normally the day before maturity. The T-bills page counts down to that day for each bill.