The Debt Management Office (DMO) plans to raise between N210 and N360 billion in sovereign bonds this quarter.

According to Reuters, the tenor for the fixed income instruments would range between five and 20 year.

The amount being proposed is higher than its 2012 fourth quarter debt issuance and a great amount than the debt issued in the corresponding period of last year.

DMO said it planned to auction between N85 to N135 billion each in 5-, 7- and 10-year paper on January 23, N75 to N135 billion in 5, 7, 10 and 20-year paper on February 13 and sell N50 to N90 billion each in 5 and 10-year bonds on March 13.

All the bonds were re-openings of previous issues.

Offshore investors' interest in local debt has surged since the inclusion of Nigeria's debt by JP Morgan in its emerging market government bond index last October. Barclays will add Nigerian debt to its index from March 2013. Nigeria issues sovereign bonds monthly to support the local bond market, create a benchmark for corporate issuance and fund its budget deficit.