The Debt Management Office has revised its Q3 2026 FGN Bond Issuance Calendar, lowering the quarter’s indicative total planned issuance to a range of N3.4 trillion–N4.6 trillion, down from the N4.2 trillion–N5.1 trillion originally scheduled.

This is according to an analysis of the original and revised Q3 2026 FGN Bond issuance calendars published by the DMO and reviewed by Nairametrics.

The revision, released on July 23, 2026, retains the July 20 auction largely unchanged but introduces significant adjustments to the August and September auctions, alongside the debut of a new 10-year benchmark bond.

However, the debt office noted that the calendar remains provisional and subject to further change at short notice.

The most significant changes are concentrated in the second and third auctions of the quarter, both of which saw their planned offer sizes reduced from the original programme.

The August 17 auction saw its total planned offer size cut sharply to N900 billion–N1.1 trillion, down from the originally scheduled N1.2 trillion–N1.6 trillion.

Within the August auction, the 22.60% FGN JAN 2035 bond’s allocation was slashed to N200 billion–N250 billion from N600 billion–N800 billion originally planned.

The 16.2499% FGN APR 2037 bond, which had been excluded entirely from the original August auction, was reintroduced at a much smaller allocation of N50 billion–N100 billion.

The 15.45% FGN JUN 2038 bond remained the dominant offering for August, with its allocation restructured to N650 billion–N750 billion as against N600 billion–N800 billion originally planned, making it the single largest security on offer that month.

The September 14 auction was similarly restructured, with total planned issuance trimmed to N1.0 trillion–N1.4 trillion from N1.2 trillion–N1.6 trillion originally scheduled.

Perhaps the most notable change in the revised calendar is the introduction of a new benchmark bond, the FGN SEP 2036, a fresh 10-year issue that replaces the previously planned reopening of the 22.60% FGN JAN 2035 at the September auction.

The FGN SEP 2036 will be offered alongside a reopening of the 15.45% FGN JUN 2038 bond, with each carrying a planned offer size of N500 billion–N700 billion at the September auction.

This marks the first new bond issuance in the quarter; every other security on the revised calendar is a reopening of an existing FGN bond.

The 15.45% FGN JUN 2038 bond now appears in all three auctions of the quarter, cementing its position as the DMO’s anchor security for Q3 2026, alongside the 22.60% FGN JAN 2035 bond, which features in the July and August auctions.

The 16.2499% FGN APR 2037 bond, by contrast, sees the most limited exposure, appearing only in the July 20 auction at full scale and a much-reduced allocation in August.

The DMO’s shift toward the 15.45% FGN JUN 2038 bond as the dominant offering across two of the three auctions signals a clear strategic tilt toward longer-duration debt (15-year original tenor), even as the government cuts back overall issuance volumes for the quarter.

The July 20 auction remains structured around three reopening issues: the 22.60% FGN JAN 2035, the 16.2499% FGN APR 2037, and the 15.45% FGN JUN 2038, with a combined planned offer size of N1.5 trillion–N2.1 trillion.

The revised calendar’s downward adjustment to total quarterly issuance suggests the DMO may be responding to either improved liquidity conditions or a reassessment of the government’s short-term financing needs relative to when the original calendar was published.

Notably, this pullback in bond issuance comes just weeks after the DMO moved in the opposite direction on Treasury Bills, expanding its Q2 2026 NTB programme by N850 billion to N4.8 trillion from an original N3.95 trillion plan.

The contrast suggests the government may be leaning more heavily on short-term instruments to meet immediate financing needs, while scaling down on longer-dated bond issuance for the quarter ahead.

The introduction of the FGN SEP 2036 bond gives investors a fresh 10-year benchmark to anchor pricing decisions, distinct from the existing 22.60% FGN JAN 2035 bond, which will have moved further along its maturity curve by September.

With the 15.45% FGN JUN 2038 bond now carrying the largest allocations across two of the three auctions, market participants — including pension fund administrators, asset managers, and bank treasury desks — are likely to watch demand at the August and September auctions closely as a signal of investor appetite for longer-dated FGN paper.

The DMO has reiterated that the calendar remains provisional and may be amended further depending on evolving market and fiscal conditions through the rest of the quarter.