- DDEP Bonds and Treasury Bills Drive GFIM’s 1.44bn Trading Volume
Government securities dominated activity on Ghana’s Fixed Income Market on Wednesday, November 4, with Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) bonds and Treasury bills together accounting for more than 93% of reported trading volume.
The market recorded total volume of 1,444,589,818 across 501 transactions. DDEP bonds led by volume, at 709.79 million, followed by Treasury bills at 641.16 million. Together, the two categories represented approximately 93.52% of the day’s reported volume. Treasury bills, however, generated most of the individual transactions, with 424 of the 501 trades, or 84.63%.
The split between volume and trade count shows two different kinds of activity. Treasury bills were traded frequently in smaller lots across many transactions, while the DDEP category generated a large share of volume through fewer trades. The figures point to active dealing in short-term government securities and continued turnover in restructured government bonds.
One DDEP security, the 2023-GC-3 bond, stood out. The market summary lists it with 428.63 million in volume across 16 trades, the largest reported amount for an individual security. That is about 29.67% of the market’s total volume for the day.
The detailed DDEP schedule records 427.23 million and 11 trades for the same bond. The difference 1.40 million and five trades matches the security’s sell/buyback entry in a separate section of the report.
This suggests that the summary’s individual-security ranking combines outright DDEP transactions with the related sell/buyback trades, even though the overall category totals keep sell/buyback activity separate.
That distinction matters when interpreting the totals. The report lists 62.64 million in sell/buyback volume as its own category. These trades form part of market activity but are not the same as outright transactions in the main security categories.
The figures therefore need to be read by category and transaction type to avoid counting activity twice when assessing individual securities.
Treasury bills accounted for 641.16 million in volume and 424 trades. One bill issue recorded 331.80 million across two transactions, making it the largest individual bill entry listed in the summary.
That concentration suggests substantial turnover in particular issues, even as trading was spread across a large number of bill transactions.
The bill market’s large trade count points to regular dealing in short-term instruments. But a high number of trades does not necessarily mean that activity is evenly distributed across all available bills.
Some issues attracted far more volume than others, so investors and analysts will need to track both the number of trades and the size of transactions in each security.
Other government securities contributed less to the day’s total. New government notes and bonds recorded 320,292 in volume across six trades, while old government notes and bonds recorded 78,000 across two trades.
The summary also reported 62.64 million in sell/buyback transactions involving government notes and bonds.
The new government issues traded at closing yields of 11.50% for a four-year bond and 12.60% for a seven-year bond. The four-year instrument’s yield moved down from an opening 11.70%, while the seven-year yield fell from 14.58%. Each issue recorded three trades.
Those movements are notable, but the small number of transactions means they should not be read as conclusive evidence of a broad shift in government borrowing costs or investor expectations.
Activity in corporate debt was comparatively modest. Corporate bonds recorded 23.33 million in volume across 10 trades, mainly in a Ghana Cocoa Board bond.
Commercial paper recorded 7.26 million across six trades, all in Cocoa Capital PLC’s paper. The market recorded no transactions in green and sustainable bonds.
The corporate-bond and commercial-paper figures show that these instruments were present in the market, but their volume was small beside DDEP bonds and Treasury bills. A single day’s trading cannot establish a longer-term pattern, but the contrast raises a question about how much fixed-income activity is reaching corporate issuers and other non-government borrowers.
More consistent secondary-market trading can make it easier for investors to buy and sell corporate securities, though turnover alone does not tell us whether new funding is becoming more available to businesses.
The report does not include a corresponding total traded-value figure or specify the unit attached to its volume totals. The 1.44 billion figure should therefore be treated as reported volume, not as the cash value of securities traded.
It also reflects one trading session and should not be used by itself to infer a monthly trend or the amount of new borrowing raised by the government.
The data do, however, provide a useful snapshot of market structure. Most volume was concentrated in DDEP bonds and Treasury bills. Most transactions took place in Treasury bills. One DDEP security and one bill issue accounted for sizeable portions of activity, while corporate bonds, commercial paper and green bonds contributed much less or recorded no trading.
As trading continues through November, the next indicators to watch are whether the concentration in a handful of government securities persists, whether bill activity remains broad across issues, and whether corporate bonds and commercial paper attract more transactions.
Yield movements will also need to be assessed alongside trading volume and the number of deals behind them.
The November 4 session shows a fixed-income market with substantial reported turnover, but activity remains heavily centred on government securities.
The depth of the market will depend not only on the volume recorded on individual days, but on whether trading becomes more consistent across instruments and issuers.
