- Fixed Income Market Turnover Surges to GH¢1.63bn as DDEP and Repo Trading Accelerate
Trading activity on the Ghana Fixed Income Market surged to GH¢1.63 billion on Thursday, September 17, as a sharp increase in DDEP bond transactions and sell/buy-back activity broadened liquidity beyond Treasury bills and lifted daily turnover by almost 70%.
Total securities traded reached GH¢1.632 billion across 924 transactions, compared with GH¢968.22 million across 335 trades in the previous session, representing a 68.5% increase in turnover and a near-threefold rise in the number of transactions.
Treasury bills remained the largest single market segment, recording GH¢682.34 million, equivalent to 41.8% of total turnover. But the most significant change came from restructured government securities, where outright DDEP bond trading jumped to GH¢511.96 million, or 31.4% of the market.
Sell/buy-back transactions in Government of Ghana securities added another GH¢432.28 million, accounting for 26.5% of turnover.
Together, Treasury bills, DDEP bonds and sell/buy-back transactions generated more than GH¢1.626 billion, or about 99.7% of all trading, underscoring the extent to which GFIM liquidity remains concentrated in sovereign securities.
The rise in DDEP activity was particularly pronounced. Turnover increased from GH¢175.82 million on Wednesday to GH¢511.96 million, a 191.2% increase, even as the number of outright DDEP transactions fell from 18 to 13.
That suggests the rise was driven primarily by substantially larger ticket sizes rather than a proliferation of smaller trades.
The most heavily traded DDEP security was the 8.50% bond maturing February 15, 2028, which recorded GH¢250.93 million across six transactions. It closed at a yield of 12.06% and a price of about GH¢95.46.
The 9.10% February 10, 2032 bond followed with GH¢199 million across three trades, closing at a yield of 14.25% and a price of GH¢80.98. Together, those two instruments accounted for almost 88% of outright DDEP turnover.
Activity was similarly strong in repo-style sell/buy-back transactions, where turnover rose 174.9% from GH¢157.23 million in the previous session to GH¢432.28 million.
The February 8, 2033 DDEP bond dominated that segment, recording GH¢176 million across 11 transactions at a yield of 12%. The February 16, 2027 bond contributed GH¢153.06 million, while the February 15, 2028 security generated GH¢100.55 million.
The scale of those transactions suggests dealers were using the restructured sovereign securities not only for outright investment but increasingly as collateral in short-term liquidity transactions.
Treasury-bill turnover, meanwhile, increased more moderately by 9.2% from GH¢624.64 million to GH¢682.34 million, but the internal composition of the segment showed a striking divergence between transaction frequency and value.
The 364-day segment accounted for GH¢510.72 million, or almost 75% of all Treasury-bill turnover, despite recording only 100 transactions.
By contrast, 91-day bills generated GH¢133.55 million, or 19.6% of T-bill value, but accounted for 737 transactions. The 182-day segment contributed GH¢38.07 million across 30 trades.
That pattern indicates considerably larger individual transaction sizes in longer-dated Treasury bills, while activity at the shortest end of the curve remained more fragmented.
The single most heavily traded Treasury bill was the 364-day security maturing July 26, 2027, which recorded GH¢240.05 million across six trades and closed at a yield of approximately 9.38% and a price of GH¢92.56.
That instrument alone accounted for more than 35% of Treasury-bill turnover and almost 15% of total GFIM activity for the session.
Another significant 364-day security was the January 18, 2027 maturity, which recorded GH¢127.66 million across 20 transactions, while the September 21, 2026 91-day bill generated GH¢81 million.
Despite Treasury bills remaining the largest segment by value, their 867 transactions represented almost 94% of all trades on the market, reinforcing their position as the most frequently exchanged fixed-income instruments.
Turnover fell to GH¢5.01 million across 17 trades, down about 22.3% from GH¢6.44 million in the previous session and representing barely 0.3% of total GFIM activity.
COCOBOD securities dominated the corporate segment. The 13% bond maturing August 28, 2028 recorded GH¢3.14 million across five transactions, while its August 2027 counterpart contributed GH¢1.81 million across 10 trades. Petrosol Platinum Energy securities accounted for only modest additional activity.
There were no trades in either new or old conventional Government of Ghana notes and bonds, compared with combined activity of just over GH¢4 million a day earlier.
The absence of transactions in those instruments reinforces the increasingly segmented nature of secondary-market liquidity, with investors concentrating almost entirely on Treasury bills, DDEP bonds and securities used in sell/buy-back transactions.
Thursday’s session therefore represented more than a simple increase in headline turnover.
Treasury bills continued to provide the deepest and most frequently traded part of the market, but the near-tripling of DDEP turnover and sharp increase in repo-style transactions point to greater activity further along Ghana’s sovereign fixed-income structure.
If DDEP bonds continue attracting larger outright and collateralised transactions alongside deep Treasury-bill liquidity, GFIM turnover could become less dependent on the short end of the curve. Corporate debt, however, remains a marginal component.
For now, the September 17 session shows a market capable of generating turnover comfortably above GH¢1.6 billion but almost every cedi of that liquidity remains concentrated in government-backed securities.
