- Ghana’s Fixed-Income Trading Hits GH¢1.59bn, but Activity Remains Concentrated in Few Securities
Trading on the Ghana Fixed Income Market reached GH¢1.59bn on Tuesday, September 29, with government securities accounting for almost the entire session as investors concentrated demand on restructured bonds and longer-dated Treasury bills.
The market recorded 297 transactions across government notes and bonds, Treasury bills, corporate debt and sell-and-buy-back agreements, according to the GFIM trading report.
Domestic Debt Exchange Programme bonds generated GH¢996.39m, representing 62.5 per cent of total turnover. Treasury bills accounted for another GH¢527.81m, or 33.1 per cent, while sell-and-buy-back transactions contributed GH¢66.04m.
Together, the three segments represented almost 99.8 per cent of market activity, reinforcing the central position of government securities in Ghana’s fixed-income market.
Corporate bonds recorded turnover of only GH¢3.66m, while newly issued government notes and bonds generated GH¢194,442. Trading in old government securities amounted to GH¢128,241.
The headline turnover suggests a liquid market, but the distribution of trading presents a more complicated picture. Activity was concentrated in a small number of instruments, meaning the market’s overall depth remained narrower than the GH¢1.59bn total might imply.
The most heavily traded instrument was the DDEP bond maturing in February 2029, which attracted about GH¢601.23m across seven transactions.
The security alone accounted for approximately 60 per cent of DDEP bond turnover and nearly 38 per cent of the entire market’s activity.
Its closing yield rose to 13.74 per cent from an opening level of 13.63 per cent, while its closing price settled at GH¢89.92 for every GH¢100 of face value.
The discount illustrates the continuing effect of risk, liquidity preferences and coupon structures on post-restructuring government debt. Although DDEP instruments have become the most actively traded medium-term securities, several continue to trade materially below face value.
The February 2028 DDEP bond recorded turnover of GH¢147.48m and closed at a yield of 12.45 per cent, up from 12 per cent. Its price ended at GH¢95.10.
The February 2032 bond generated GH¢138.13mn and closed at a yield of 14.26 per cent, with its price at GH¢81.02. Meanwhile, the February 2035 instrument recorded GH¢48.42m in turnover and closed at a yield of 14.47 per cent.
Across the traded DDEP bonds, the volume-weighted closing yield was approximately 13.59 per cent, compared with a volume-weighted opening yield of 13.47 per cent. This suggests that the session combined strong turnover with modest upward pressure on yields.
That distinction is important. High trading volumes do not necessarily mean investors are becoming less concerned about risk. They may instead reflect portfolio repositioning, liquidity management or the transfer of large institutional holdings at yields considered sufficient to compensate buyers.
The dominance of one 2029 bond also indicates that liquidity is accumulating around selected benchmark instruments rather than spreading evenly across the restructured yield curve.
Treasury-bill trading was even more concentrated by maturity.
Of the GH¢527.81m recorded in the segment, approximately GH¢511.75m, or 97 per cent, was invested in 364-day bills. The 91-day segment generated GH¢9.90m, while 182-day bills attracted GH¢6.16m.
The largest Treasury bill transaction involved the bill maturing on August 23, 2027. The security recorded turnover of GH¢225.72m across six transactions and closed at a yield of approximately 9.35 per cent.
Several other 364-day instruments also attracted substantial activity. The bill maturing on May 31, 2027, recorded GH¢63.30m, while securities maturing on July 5 and July 12, 2027, generated GH¢43.57m and GH¢38.17m, respectively.
The preference for 364-day securities suggests investors are willing to extend duration beyond the shortest end of the market to secure higher returns. It may also reflect expectations that interest rates could decline over the medium term, allowing investors to lock in current yields before further monetary easing occurs.
But the movement should not automatically be interpreted as a broad restoration of long-term confidence.
A 364-day bill remains a short-term government obligation. Investors are extending maturity within the Treasury bill curve, but they are not necessarily making the much longer commitment associated with conventional bonds.
The pattern therefore points to cautious duration-taking: investors appear willing to move beyond three- and six-month securities, but primarily where maturity remains within a one-year horizon.
The weakness of corporate bond activity remains one of the clearest structural limitations of Ghana’s fixed-income market.
Only GH¢3.66m of corporate debt changed hands during the session, equivalent to about 0.23 per cent of total turnover.
Trading was limited to two Ghana Cocoa Board instruments. The August 2028 bond led the segment with GH¢2.17m across five transactions, while the August 2027 security recorded GH¢1.49m.
The small volume illustrates the limited range of actively traded alternatives available to institutional investors seeking to diversify beyond government debt.
Ghana’s fixed-income market may record large daily turnover, but it remains overwhelmingly a sovereign market. This creates a circular dynamic: government securities attract the most investors because they offer the greatest liquidity, and they remain the most liquid because most investors continue to trade them.
Breaking that cycle will require more corporate issuances, credible credit ratings, improved disclosure and a broader institutional investor base willing to price private-sector risk.
Sell-and-buy-back transactions added GH¢66.04mn to the session’s turnover. About GH¢56.80mn of this was concentrated in the DDEP bond maturing in February 2038.
These transactions provide short-term liquidity using government securities as collateral and are important to the functioning of the market. But they should be distinguished from outright purchases because they often represent temporary funding arrangements rather than permanent changes in ownership.
Excluding sell-and-buy-back transactions, outright market turnover stood at approximately GH¢1.53bn.
The September 29 session therefore sends two signals.
The first is positive: Ghana’s secondary debt market can facilitate transactions approaching GH¢1.6bn in a single day, with significant investor participation in post-restructuring bonds and one-year Treasury securities.
The second is more cautionary: liquidity remains highly concentrated in government debt, selected maturities and a handful of large transactions.
The immediate outlook is likely to remain shaped by expectations for inflation, the cedi, government borrowing requirements and the future direction of monetary policy.
If inflation remains contained and investors become more confident that interest rates will decline, demand for 364-day bills and selected medium-term DDEP bonds could strengthen further. That would support prices and gradually compress yields.
But renewed currency pressure, fiscal slippage or higher government financing requirements could reverse that movement and force investors to demand a larger risk premium.
The real measure of progress will therefore not be turnover alone. It will be whether liquidity spreads across more maturities, more issuers and more transactions.
For now, Ghana’s fixed-income market is active but its depth remains concentrated in the sovereign securities investors know they can trade.
