- Short-Term Government Securities Dominate GFIM As Monday Turnover Reaches GH¢1.61bn
Trading on the Ghana Fixed Income Market opened the week strongly, with total market turnover reaching GH¢1.61 billion on Monday, August 31, 2026, as investors concentrated overwhelmingly on Treasury bills and selected Domestic Debt Exchange Programme bonds.
The session recorded 306 transactions across government securities, corporate bonds and sell/buy-back transactions, with Treasury bills alone accounting for GH¢1.30 billion, or approximately 80.89% of overall market turnover.
DDEP bonds followed with GH¢228.39 million across 17 transactions, while sell/buy-back transactions involving Government of Ghana securities generated GH¢56.10 million from seven trades.
New Government of Ghana notes and bonds recorded GH¢21.74 million, old government securities contributed GH¢1.42 million, while corporate bond activity remained comparatively subdued at GH¢386,227.
The concentration of trading in Treasury bills reinforces the strong investor preference for short-term government instruments, even as Ghana gradually attempts to deepen activity further along the domestic yield curve.
Within the Treasury bill market, longer-dated bills accounted for the overwhelming majority of activity.
Trading in the 364-day segment reached approximately GH¢1.13 billion through 185 transactions, representing about 86.62% of total Treasury bill turnover.
The 91-day segment generated approximately GH¢149.92 million through 60 trades, while 182-day bills recorded about GH¢24.50 million from 26 transactions.
The most actively traded instrument across the entire market was the Treasury bill maturing on July 26, 2027, which recorded GH¢348.01 million in turnover from 14 transactions.
The instrument closed at a yield of approximately 10.22% and an end-of-day price of 91.5446.
Another 364-day bill, maturing on March 15, 2027, attracted GH¢273.06 million across 23 trades, while the August 30, 2027 maturity recorded GH¢133.71 million in six transactions.
The July 19, 2027 bill also generated substantial activity, recording approximately GH¢112.96 million from 38 transactions.
The scale of activity in the one-year segment suggests investors remain willing to extend beyond the shortest Treasury instruments where yields offer sufficient compensation, but still prefer maturities that limit duration risk.
That positioning is important as government attempts to rebuild a more normal domestic debt market following the disruptions created by Ghana’s debt restructuring.
Treasury bills have remained a critical financing instrument because their shorter maturity gives investors greater flexibility than longer-duration bonds, particularly in an environment where expectations around inflation, interest rates and fiscal policy continue to evolve.
The DDEP market was the second-largest source of turnover on Monday.
Total activity reached GH¢228.39 million, with one instrument accounting for more than half of the segment.
The 8.35% DDEP bond maturing February 16, 2027 recorded GH¢122.83 million across 10 trades, making it the largest traded bond security of the session.
Its closing yield fell sharply to 10.85% from an opening 12.60%, with its end-of-day price rising to approximately 98.8876.
Because bond yields move inversely to prices, the decline in yield indicates stronger demand for the security during the session.
The February 12, 2030 security recorded GH¢40.00 million, with its yield rising from 13.63% to 14.20%.
The August 17, 2027 DDEP bond traded GH¢24.00 million, with the yield easing from 11.20% to 11.05%.
Meanwhile, the August 15, 2028 instrument recorded GH¢20.00 million, with its closing yield moving higher to 13.60% from 13.30%.
Another GH¢20.00 million was traded in the February 10, 2032 DDEP bond, where the yield climbed from 13.69% to 14.65%.
The divergent yield movements indicate that investors were differentiating between individual maturities rather than repricing the entire DDEP curve uniformly.
Trading in newly issued Government of Ghana bonds was concentrated entirely in the 12.50% seven-year bond maturing March 29, 2033.
The security recorded GH¢21.74 million across four transactions. Its yield increased from 12.20% to 12.72%, while the closing price settled at approximately 98.9936.
Activity in old Government of Ghana securities remained limited at GH¢1.42 million from five transactions.
A bond maturing on June 12, 2028 accounted for GH¢1.00 million of that amount, with its yield moving from 20.97% to 21.43%.
Sell/buy-back transactions added another GH¢56.10 million to total market activity.
The largest transaction in that segment involved the 9.25% DDEP bond maturing February 8, 2033, which recorded approximately GH¢19.87 million.
A February 2028 DDEP security accounted for another GH¢17.69 million, while a February 2037 instrument generated approximately GH¢10.78 million.
Only GH¢386,227 changed hands through two transactions, entirely in a Petrosol Platinum Energy PLC bond maturing in August 2031.
The modest corporate-market activity highlights the continuing imbalance within Ghana’s fixed-income market, where government securities account for nearly all secondary-market liquidity.
For policymakers and market operators, developing a deeper corporate bond market remains important because businesses need alternatives to conventional bank credit, particularly for long-term capital investment.
Monday’s trading nevertheless reinforces the immediate reality of Ghana’s fixed-income market: government debt remains overwhelmingly dominant.
Excluding sell/buy-back transactions, outright fixed-income turnover was approximately GH¢1.56 billion, with Treasury bills and DDEP bonds accounting for virtually all activity.
The heavy Treasury bill concentration also provides an important signal about investor risk appetite.
Investors are participating actively in government debt, but liquidity remains heavily tilted towards shorter-duration instruments rather than a broad spread across the sovereign yield curve.
That makes the government’s efforts to rebuild longer-term domestic financing particularly important.
Extending maturities can reduce refinancing pressure on the Treasury, but investors will demand yields that adequately compensate for inflation, fiscal and duration risks.
For now, the August 31 session shows a market with abundant trading liquidity but a clear preference hierarchy.
Treasury bills remain the dominant instrument, selected DDEP maturities continue to attract significant secondary-market demand, and corporate bonds remain a small part of overall activity.
With GH¢1.61 billion traded in a single session, liquidity is not the immediate constraint.
The bigger challenge for Ghana’s fixed-income market is gradually moving that liquidity beyond Treasury bills and into a deeper, more diversified market for longer-term government and private-sector securities.
