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How to Place a Bid at a Treasury Auction

The notice, the minimum, competitive or non-competitive, the tender form, how winners are chosen and paying on time.

Published 13 Oct 2026 · 3 min read

Your CDS account is open and you have chosen an auction. Here is how a bid goes from your hand to the Bank of Tanzania, and how the winners are chosen.

1. Read the notice

The Bank of Tanzania publishes a notice (a call for tender) about a week before each bond auction. Find it on the auction calendar. Check these lines:

  • Auction date and the 11:00 a.m. closing time

  • Minimum bid size: TZS 1,000,000 in multiples of TZS 100,000 for bonds; TZS 500,000 in multiples of TZS 10,000 for bills (recent notices)

  • Settlement date: when you must pay (T+1, the next working day)

  • Coupon, coupon dates and redemption date (bonds)

  • Accrued interest (on reopened bonds)

  • Tax and Eligibility

2. Decide your amount

Your amount is the face value: what the Government repays at maturity. It must meet the minimum and follow the steps. TZS 3,000,000 of bonds is fine; TZS 3,050,000 is not (not a multiple of 100,000).

3. Choose how to bid

  • Competitive bid: you state the price per TZS 100 of face value, to four decimal places (for example 109.8000). You win only if your price is at or above the lowest price the Bank accepts. You can submit several competitive bids at different prices.

  • Non-competitive bid: you state only the amount. You accept the weighted average price of the winning competitive bids. Each auction sets aside an amount for non-competitive bids.

More: Competitive vs non-competitive bids.

4. Fill and submit the tender form

The tender form is CDS/FORM/03, available from the Bank of Tanzania website and from CDPs. You write the amount and price of each bid, sign it, and give it to your CDP. The CDP enters your bid in the CDS and submits it online to the Bank of Tanzania before 11:00 a.m. Your CDP may have an earlier internal deadline: ask.

5. How the winners are chosen

The Bank of Tanzania uses a multiple-price auction (2022 bond guidelines):

  • Bids are ranked from the highest price down to the price at which the amount on offer runs out (the cut-off price).

  • Each winner pays the price they bid.

  • If bids at the cut-off price add up to more than what is left, the remainder is shared out in proportion to each bid.

A real example. At the auction of the 12.25% 15-year bond No. 696 on 30 September 2026:

  • the highest bid was 113.5568 and the lowest 90.6655;

  • the lowest successful price was 109.6647: bids below it were rejected;

  • the weighted average price of successful bids was 110.5120 (a yield of 10.79%), which is what non-competitive bidders paid.

See the full result of that auction.

6. After the auction

Results appear on the Bank of Tanzania website and on UCHUMIKA right after the auction. If you won, your CDP gives you a bid code. You pay on the settlement date through your bank, quoting the bid code; the bank sends the money through the Tanzania Interbank Settlement System (TISS), and the securities arrive in your CDS account.

Do not miss the payment. Notices state that successful bidders who fail to pay on time are barred from auctions for at least 30 days.

If your bid did not win, you pay nothing and can bid again at a later auction.

Next step

Work out how much you will pay and receive, or go back to the investment journey.

Sources: Bank of Tanzania, Guidelines for Participation in Primary and Secondary Markets for Treasury Bonds (2022), sections 3 and 4; Bank of Tanzania auction notices and results. This article is for education only and is not investment advice.