- Ghana Fixed-Income Trading Rises to GH¢2.03bn With DDEP and Treasury Bills Driving Activity
Trading on the Ghana Fixed Income Market reached GH¢2.03 billion on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, as sell/buy-back transactions and government securities dominated activity, underscoring the market’s continued concentration in sovereign instruments and short-term liquidity management.
The market recorded total traded volume of GH¢2,029,979,144 across 1,119 transactions, according to the GFIM trading report. Sell/buy-back transactions involving Government of Ghana notes and bonds accounted for GH¢930.18 million, equivalent to 45.82% of total activity, making them by far the largest segment of the session.
Treasury bills generated GH¢390.52 million, or 19.24% of turnover, while Domestic Debt Exchange Programme bonds contributed GH¢387.42 million, representing 19.08%. New Government of Ghana notes and bonds added GH¢307.42 million, while corporate bonds accounted for only GH¢14.44 million.
The composition means government-linked securities, including sell/buy-back transactions, accounted for approximately 99.29% of overall market activity. Corporate bonds represented only 0.71%, highlighting the continuing gap between the depth of Ghana’s sovereign debt market and the comparatively small secondary market for private-sector fixed-income securities.
Excluding sell/buy-back trades, outright market turnover stood at about GH¢1.10 billion, equivalent to 54.18% of total activity. That figure suggests there was still substantial underlying secondary-market trading beyond liquidity-management transactions, although government securities remained overwhelmingly dominant.
The largest single outright government bond trade came from the new seven-year Government of Ghana bond maturing on March 29, 2033. The GOG-BD-29/03/33-A6155-2001-12.50 security recorded volume of GH¢307.42 million, effectively accounting for all trading in the new government notes and bonds category.
The bond opened at a yield of 12.73% and closed at 12.59%, with an end-of-day closing price of approximately 99.59. The decline in yield during the session indicates stronger pricing for the security, although one day of trading is insufficient to establish a broader trend in investor expectations.
DDEP securities were also active, with total turnover of GH¢387.42 million across 31 trades. The most heavily traded instrument was the GOG-BD-10/02/32-A6148-1838-9.10, which recorded volume of GH¢261.00 million across 11 transactions and accounted for 67.37% of all DDEP bond activity.
Its closing yield stood at 14.55%, compared with an opening yield of 14.67%, while the closing price was around 79.94. The substantial discount to par continues to illustrate the pricing dynamics surrounding longer-dated restructured government debt, where investors balance coupon structures, maturity risk and prevailing market yields.
Other notable DDEP activity included GH¢75.00 million in the February 2031 GC-5 bond, GH¢20.00 million in the February 2030 GC-4 instrument and GH¢15.01 million in the August 2027 A-1 bond. The concentration in a handful of securities suggests liquidity remains uneven across the broader post-restructuring curve.
Treasury bills remained one of the most active outright segments, generating GH¢390.52 million from 1,013 trades. The exceptionally high number of transactions compared with government bonds reflects the broader participation and shorter maturities associated with the Treasury bill market.
The largest Treasury bill transaction by volume was the 364-day bill maturing on February 22, 2027, which traded GH¢88.88 million across 14 transactions and closed at a yield of approximately 6.69%. It alone represented 22.76% of Treasury bill turnover.
Other significant 364-day bill trades included GH¢38.31 million in the July 26, 2027 maturity, GH¢37.61 million in the August 30, 2027 maturity and GH¢29.12 million in the July 19, 2027 bill. A further GH¢27.29 million changed hands in the May 24, 2027 maturity.
The data show a relatively broad distribution of activity across the longer end of the Treasury bill curve, with investors continuing to transact actively in bills carrying yields ranging from the mid-single digits to above 10.00%, depending on remaining maturity.
The 91-day segment also recorded meaningful activity. The October 19, 2026 bill traded GH¢13.70 million, while the September 14, 2026 maturity recorded GH¢9.13 million and the November 30, 2026 instrument changed hands at GH¢8.61 million.
The 182-day segment was more concentrated, with the December 14, 2026 maturity recording GH¢20.34 million. Activity across the different bill tenors indicates that investors continue to use the market for both liquidity positioning and duration management rather than concentrating exclusively on the shortest maturities.
Sell/buy-back transactions provided the strongest source of overall volume. Total activity reached GH¢930.18 million across 48 trades, with the DDEP GOG-BD-16/02/27-A6143-1838-8.35 accounting for GH¢585.34 million across 17 transactions.
That single security represented approximately 62.93% of all sell/buy-back turnover. Another GH¢234.82 million was recorded in the February 2029 GC-3 DDEP bond, while the February 2028 GC-2 security generated GH¢102.80 million.
Sell/buy-back transactions are important because they can reflect market participants using government securities to obtain or deploy short-term liquidity rather than taking outright directional positions in the underlying bonds. Their dominance therefore should not automatically be interpreted as a surge in long-term investor demand for government debt.
Corporate bond trading, by contrast, remained limited. The segment recorded total turnover of GH¢14.44 million across 26 trades, with Ghana Cocoa Board securities accounting for virtually all activity.
The CMB-BD-30/08/27-A6302-1675-13.00 recorded GH¢12.61 million across 22 transactions, representing 87.34% of corporate bond turnover, while the August 2028 Cocoa Board security added GH¢1.83 million. No meaningful trading was recorded in the listed securities of several other corporate issuers during the session.
The concentration illustrates a persistent structural issue in Ghana’s fixed-income market. While government securities benefit from regular issuance, broad institutional participation and established liquidity, many corporate bonds trade infrequently, reducing price discovery and making it harder for issuers to develop a deep secondary market.
A stronger corporate bond market could provide businesses with a longer-term alternative to bank lending, particularly for infrastructure, manufacturing and expansion projects. But that requires a larger investor base, more frequent issuance, stronger disclosure and sufficient secondary-market liquidity to give investors confidence that positions can be exited when necessary.
The September 2 session therefore reflected two distinct characteristics of Ghana’s fixed-income market: substantial overall liquidity and heavy sovereign concentration. More than GH¢2.00 billion changed hands, but almost all of it remained tied directly or indirectly to government securities.
For policymakers and market operators, the task is not simply to increase turnover but to deepen the diversity of that turnover. A mature fixed-income market should eventually support active trading across sovereign, municipal, infrastructure and corporate debt rather than relying overwhelmingly on government securities.
For now, GFIM remains highly liquid in its core sovereign segments, with sell/buy-back activity, DDEP bonds and Treasury bills providing most of the market’s depth. The next phase of development will be determined by whether that liquidity can gradually extend beyond government debt into a broader range of productive private-sector financing instruments.
