- Ghana Fixed-Income Turnover Hits GH¢2.92bn as DDEP Securities Capture 79.72%
Trading on the Ghana Fixed Income Market reached GH¢2.92 billion on Thursday, August 13, 2026, with bonds issued under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme accounting for almost four-fifths of total market activity.
The GFIM trading report shows DDEP bonds generated GH¢2.33 billion in volume across 80 transactions, representing approximately 79.72% of all securities traded during the session.
Treasury bills were the second-largest segment, recording GH¢576.34 million across 776 transactions, equivalent to about 19.74% of total market volume.
Corporate bonds contributed GH¢11.01 million, while sell-and-buy-back transactions involving government securities generated GH¢4.73 million. Old government notes and bonds attracted only GH¢75,100, while no activity was recorded in new Government of Ghana notes and bonds.
The numbers show a secondary market that remains heavily concentrated in restructured sovereign debt, with selected DDEP maturities attracting transactions substantially larger than those occurring across most other fixed-income instruments.
The standout security was the GOG-BD-11/02/31-A6147-1838-8.95, the DDEP bond maturing in February 2031.
It recorded GH¢1.33 billion in turnover across 28 transactions, accounting for approximately 57.33% of DDEP trading and 45.70% of the entire GFIM market for the day.
The bond closed at a yield of 14.47% and a weighted average closing price of approximately GH¢81.89 for every GH¢100 of face value.
That discount to par reflects the relationship between the instrument’s 8.95% coupon and the substantially higher yield currently demanded in the secondary market. Investors buying the security below face value receive both the coupon payments and the potential capital gain if the bond is ultimately redeemed at par.
Several other DDEP securities also attracted significant activity.
The February 2027 bond carrying an 8.35% coupon recorded GH¢456.74 million across 30 transactions and closed at a yield of 11.14%, while the February 2028 instrument generated GH¢194.35 million in seven trades.
A February 2034 DDEP bond recorded GH¢150.00 million across six transactions, while a bond maturing in August 2027 contributed another GH¢100.00 million.
Together, the transactions underline an increasingly selective pattern of liquidity across Ghana’s post-restructuring yield curve.
Headline turnover may be sizeable, but a relatively small number of DDEP securities continue to account for a substantial share of trading. That concentration is important because liquidity in one or two benchmark-like instruments does not necessarily imply that investors can trade all government bonds with similar ease.
Treasury bills presented a markedly different trading pattern.
Although the segment recorded only about one-quarter of the value traded in DDEP bonds, it generated 776 individual transactions, compared with 80 for DDEP securities.
The largest Treasury bill by volume was the instrument maturing on August 9, 2027, which recorded GH¢127.63 million across 23 trades and closed at a yield of approximately 12.82%.
Another bill maturing on February 1, 2027 recorded GH¢97.84 million, while the July 19, 2027 maturity generated approximately GH¢95.09 million.
The large number of Treasury bill transactions relative to their aggregate value suggests a market characterised by smaller and more dispersed trades, in contrast with the larger institutional-sized transactions seen in the DDEP segment.
That difference provides useful insight into the structure of Ghana’s fixed-income market.
Treasury bills remain important short-term instruments for banks, institutional investors and other market participants seeking liquidity and relatively short duration. DDEP bonds, by contrast, increasingly provide the market with opportunities to position along the longer end of the yield curve, although liquidity remains concentrated.
Corporate debt activity remained modest but was not entirely absent.
Corporate bonds recorded GH¢11.01 million across three transactions, with a Ghana Cocoa Board security maturing on August 31, 2026 accounting for GH¢10.50 million in a single trade. Another COCOBOD bond maturing in August 2027 recorded GH¢505,400 across two transactions.
The relatively small corporate contribution continues to illustrate the dominance of government-related securities within Ghana’s fixed-income market.
A deeper corporate bond market could provide businesses with alternatives to bank lending while offering pension funds, insurers and other institutional investors a broader range of long-term investment assets. For now, however, sovereign and government-related instruments continue to absorb the overwhelming majority of secondary-market liquidity.
Sell-and-buy-back transactions amounted to GH¢4.73 million across nine trades.
The largest involved a DDEP bond maturing in February 2035, which generated GH¢4.15 million in a single transaction at a yield of 14.96% and a closing price of approximately GH¢74.26.
Old government notes and bonds were effectively marginal, recording only GH¢75,100 across five trades. No transactions were recorded in the newer Government of Ghana bond category.
Thursday’s session therefore presents two contrasting pictures of market depth.
On one hand, overall turnover of GH¢2.92 billion demonstrates that Ghana’s secondary debt market can accommodate substantial transaction values. On the other, nearly 79.72% of that activity occurred in DDEP bonds, and one 2031 security alone accounted for almost half of the entire market.
The concentration does not diminish the significance of the turnover, but it does show where liquidity currently resides.
For investors, that matters because a functioning fixed-income market depends not simply on the aggregate amount traded but on the ability to buy and sell different maturities without significantly affecting prices.
The August 13 session suggests Ghana’s restructured bonds are increasingly providing that liquidity but disproportionately in a handful of maturities.
The GH¢1.33 billion traded in the 2031 DDEP bond therefore tells the most important story of the day.
Ghana’s fixed-income market remains active, but its centre of gravity is firmly within the post-DDEP government bond curve, where investors appear increasingly willing to transact in size while much of the rest of the market remains comparatively thin.
