What is a Treasury bill?

A treasury bill is a paperless short-term borrowing instrument issued by the Government through the Central Bank of Kenya (as a fiscal agent) to raise money on short term basis – for a period of up to 1 year. Treasury bills are issued in maturities of 91 days and 182 days, with 364 days paper expected in the financial year 2009/10. Treasury bills are sold at a discounted price to reflect investor’s return and redeemed at face (par) value.

Who can invest in Treasury bills in Kenya?

1. Resident or non-resident individuals and/or corporate bodies who hold an account with a local commercial bank
2. Resident or non-resident individuals and/or corporate bodies who may not have an account with a local commercial bank but invests as a nominee of a commercial bank or investment bank in Kenya
3. Resident or non-resident individual and/or corporate bodies that has CDS Account with Central Bank of Kenya
4. Any potential investor must have a minimum face value of Ksh.100, 000. Any additional amounts MUST be in multiples of Kshs. 50,000

How and when do I invest?

1. Any potential investor must have an active and updated a CDS account at Central Bank of Kenya.
2. Treasury bills are sold weekly, with 91 days and 182 days papers being issued in alternate weeks. Each new offer is advertised in the Daily Nation Newspaper on Fridays and is available onTreasury Bills Results Online
3. Investors MUST correctly and appropriately complete Treasury Bills application form available at the Central Bank of Kenya head office Nairobi or any of its branches in Eldoret, Kisumu and Mombasa or can be downloaded onApplication Forms Online
4. The duly completed application form must be submitted to Central Bank (or branches) on or before 2.00pm on Thursdays.
5. Investors may place their application either as competitive or non-competitive (average) bids. Competitive bidders MUST indicate the desired price/yield and usually understand the movements in interest rates and market conditions. However, such bids may either be accepted or rejected depending on interest rates and liquidity levels. Non-competitive bidders on the other hand only indicate ‘Average’ or ‘Non-Competitive’ in the place of offer price per Ksh 100 in the application forms. Since this category is a price-taker of market outcome (successful weighted average rate), their placement is guaranteed. However, maximum amount one can invest per CDS account per issue/tenor is Ksh 10,000,000.
6. Application forms should be deposited in the blue tender boxes marked “Treasury bills” at any branch of Central Bank by 2.00p.m on Thursdays.

How do I determine my return on a Treasury bill?

Treasury bills are sold at discounted price (a price less than par price of Ksh 100) and therefore the discount is the only return an investor earns on Treasury bills. The price is computed per Kshs 100 depending on the interest rate/yield quoted by investor using the following formula:

Where,
P = Price per Ksh 100 which investor will pay
r = Interest Rate or yield per annum quoted by the investor
d = Days to marturity of Tenor (91, 182 and 364 days)

Illustration
An investor intents to place Ksh 12,000,000 in the 91 days Treasury bill at a quoted rate/yield of 7.65% p.a. What is his/her return, if s/he is withholding tax-payer or non-withholding taxpayer?

Solution
Using the formula above already inputted in Treasury bills calculator on the Central Bank website published as the ‘Treasury bills pricing calculator’, by clicking on the Treasury Bills Pricing Calculator the investor’s return will be as follows:

(a) For Non-Withholding Tax payer at 15%;

This implies for every Ksh 100 investor wishes to lend to the Government, s/he will pay Ksh 98.128 on the value date (the day the government borrows) and receive Ksh 100 on maturity date (the 91st day). This translates to a net return of Ksh 1.872 per Ksh 100. Therefore for Ksh 12,000,000, the investor will pay the Government a total of

Implying investor’s total return/interest amount is Ksh (12,000,000 – 11,775,360) = Ksh 224,640 in 3-months period.

(b) For Withholding Tax payer at 15%, the investor’s total return/interest amount will be Ksh (12,000,000 – 11,775,360) = Ksh 224,640 in 3-months period.

But 15% withholding tax =

Then investor pays

Implying, the investor’s return is Ksh 190,944 for 3-months investment of Ksh 12 million.

Note: An investor will be exempt from paying withholding Tax on presentation of Tax Exemption Certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

When do I know what amounts to pay Central Bank after application?

1. The Auction Management Committee (AMC) meets every Thursday at 4.00pm to conduct the auction and determine successful bidders.
2. After considering all bids both competitive and non-competitive bids received, AMC arrives at a cut-off rate based on amounts advertised
3. The successful weighted average rate derived from competitive bids is applied to all non-competitive bids and is published with the rest of results in Daily newspaper.
4. The Central Bank reserves the right to allocate the equal or lower amount of Treasury Bills applied for by an investor.

When do I make payment and where?

1. Investors call or visit the Central Bank a day after the auction date to know how much to pay Central Bank, not later than 2.00pm on the following Monday, provided it is a working day.
2. Successful bidder MUST pay total amount given to him/her by any officer from Central Bank by 2.00pm on the value date, usually on Mondays unless it is a holiday. Any Investor who defaults in payment may be suspended from participating in future auctions for some specified period.
3. Payments can be made in Cash, Bankers cheques, Direct debits (Banks only) or Rollover of funds on matured securities.

What is the Evidence of Payment on the part of the investor?

Can I trade my Treasury bill in the secondary market (Read Nairobi Stock Exchange)?

What option do I have in case I want my money back before maturity of my bills?

Investors who do not wish to hold their investments until maturity are allowed to sell back (rediscount) their Treasury Bills to Central Bank as a last resort. This is however punitive to the investor as a way of discouraging the practice. The following formula is used to calculate amounts receivable (A) by investor:

Where,
RP = Rediscount Price per KShs 100 which investor will receive
R = Rediscount interest rate of yield per annum
d = days to maturity or tenor (91, 182 and 364 days)

Note: R is prevailing weighted average interest rate of the respective tenor plus 3% margin.

Where;
A = Amount receivable
F.V = Face Value Invested
RP = Rediscount Price

What happens when my Treasury Bills mature?

1. The Central Bank remits the face value of maturing bills directly to the investor’s commercial bank account on due date electronically. The investor’s CDS account is debited by the same value of the security and statements are sent to the investor showing new position.
2.  Investors may however to choose to rollover their security into a new forthcoming issue and in this case, they have to complete application form giving rollover instructions and submit to Central Bank before Thursday at 2.00pm. The Bank therefore does not remit face value into investor’s bank account but rather send only refund amounts generated from the new investment.
3. If the security is still held under lien on maturity date, the Bank will remit funds in the account of the holder of the security (the lender of cash).