- DDEP Bonds Dominate GFIM as Daily Turnover Hits GH¢1.42bn
Trading on the Ghana Fixed Income Market climbed to GH¢1.42 billion on Thursday, August 6, 2026, with bonds issued under Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme overwhelmingly driving activity as investors concentrated transactions in longer-dated government securities.
Data from the GFIM daily trading report show that DDEP bonds generated GH¢1.37 billion in turnover from 20 trades, accounting for approximately 96.36% of the GH¢1.42 billion traded across the market.
Treasury bills contributed GH¢51.91 million from 59 trades, while new Government of Ghana notes and bonds, old government bonds, corporate securities and sell/buy-back transactions recorded no turnover during the session.
The distribution of activity points to a fixed-income market where liquidity remains heavily concentrated in restructured government bonds, particularly a handful of longer-dated securities that are increasingly serving as the main instruments for secondary-market positioning.
The 2032 DDEP bond, identified as GOG-BD-10/02/32-A6148-1838-9.10, emerged as the most actively traded security, recording GH¢517.00 million in turnover across six transactions.
Its closing yield climbed to 15.14% from 14.60%, a 54-basis-point increase, while the end-of-day closing price settled at GH¢77.87.
The movement indicates selling pressure on the security during the session, given the inverse relationship between bond prices and yields.
Close behind was the 2034 DDEP bond, which attracted GH¢400.00 million across three trades. Its yield increased from 15.27% to 15.63%, with the closing price ending at GH¢72.96.
The 2031 DDEP bond also recorded substantial activity, with GH¢380.00 million changing hands across seven transactions.
Unlike the 2032 and 2034 instruments, however, the 2031 bond experienced a decline in yield, closing at 14.92% from 15.24% at the start of the session. Its end-of-day price stood at GH¢80.81, signalling relatively stronger demand for the security.
Together, the 2031, 2032 and 2034 bonds generated GH¢1.30 billion in turnover.
That represented about 94.46% of all DDEP trading and approximately 91.02% of total GFIM turnover for the day underscoring just how concentrated market liquidity was in three securities.
The 2027 DDEP bond with an 8.35% coupon recorded GH¢45.78 million in turnover from a single transaction. Its closing yield edged up to 11.20% from 11.18%, with the bond ending the session at a price of GH¢98.56.
The 2030 DDEP security generated GH¢30.29 million from three trades and saw its yield decline to 14.59% from 14.79%, while its closing price stood at GH¢84.43.
The day’s trading pattern indicates that investors were not simply buying or selling DDEP securities as a single asset class but were differentiating across maturities.
Yield increases on the heavily traded 2032 and 2034 bonds contrasted with falling yields on the 2030 and 2031 securities, suggesting different demand conditions along the restructured government bond curve.
The concentration in longer-dated bonds is particularly notable as Ghana’s secondary fixed-income market continues to evolve following the 2023 domestic debt restructuring.
DDEP securities now represent an important portion of outstanding government debt available to institutional investors, including banks, pension funds, asset managers and insurance companies.
Secondary-market liquidity is important because it allows holders to rebalance portfolios rather than waiting until maturity for repayment.
Thursday’s GH¢1.37 billion DDEP turnover therefore points to significant portfolio activity in the restructured securities, although the concentration of trades in only a few bonds also shows that liquidity is far from evenly distributed across the curve.
Several DDEP securities recorded no trades at all despite having indicative opening and closing yields.
At the short end of the market, Treasury bills generated substantially less activity.
Total Treasury bill turnover amounted to GH¢51.91 million, equivalent to just 3.64% of overall market activity, even though bills accounted for 59 of the market’s 79 recorded trades.
This contrast between the number of transactions and their value illustrates the difference in average ticket sizes.
DDEP bonds recorded only 20 trades but generated more than GH¢1.37 billion, while the significantly larger number of Treasury bill transactions produced less than GH¢52 million.
The largest individual Treasury bill transaction was in the government bill maturing on November 2, 2026, which recorded GH¢12.38 million in turnover in a single trade. The security closed at a yield of approximately 5.78% and a price of GH¢98.62.
The fixed-income trading session comes against a broader backdrop of easing inflation and lower short-term interest rates in Ghana, conditions that are gradually reshaping investor calculations across government securities.
But Thursday’s numbers indicate that investor interest is extending beyond short-dated Treasury instruments.
The scale of activity in longer-dated DDEP bonds suggests that institutional investors are actively repositioning within the sovereign curve, potentially balancing yield opportunities against duration and credit risk.
While short-dated bills are trading at yields in the mid-single digits, some longer-dated DDEP securities are offering yields around 15%, reflecting the substantially greater duration and risk premium demanded by investors for holding restructured government debt over longer periods.
That yield differential may continue to influence portfolio allocation as investors assess how far interest rates can fall and how Ghana’s fiscal and debt trajectory develops.
For the GFIM, Thursday’s session was therefore less about the headline GH¢1.42 billion turnover than about where that money was concentrated.
More than GH¢96 out of every GH¢100 traded went into DDEP securities, and roughly GH¢91 out of every GH¢100 of total market turnover was concentrated in just three bonds maturing in 2031, 2032 and 2034.
The GH¢517.00 million traded in the 2032 bond alone accounted for more than one-third of the entire market.
The numbers reinforce the central role DDEP bonds are now playing in Ghana’s secondary fixed-income market while also showing that market depth remains concentrated in relatively few securities.
For investors, the next signal to watch will be whether this liquidity broadens across the DDEP curve or continues clustering around selected longer-dated bonds as portfolio managers reposition for Ghana’s changing interest-rate environment.
