- Treasury Bills Overwhelm Bond Trading as GH¢2.02bn Changes Hands on GFIM
Trading on the Ghana Fixed Income Market reached GH¢2.02bn on Tuesday, September 23, with Treasury bills accounting for more than four-fifths of total activity as investors remained heavily concentrated in short-term government securities.
The official GFIM trading report showed Treasury bill turnover of GH¢1.64bn across 1,782 trades, equivalent to 81.13% of the market’s aggregate volume.
The session recorded 1,851 transactions across all market segments, reinforcing the dominance of Treasury bills in secondary-market liquidity.
DDEP bonds were the second-largest component of activity, generating GH¢308.16m across 23 transactions and accounting for approximately 15.22% of overall turnover.
Sell-and-buy-back transactions in government notes and bonds contributed another GH¢69.32m, equivalent to 3.42% of total activity.
Corporate bonds produced GH¢4.20m, while old government notes and bonds added just GH¢447,191 and no trades were recorded in new government bonds.
The concentration in Treasury bills was itself highly uneven. The single largest instrument traded was the Treasury bill maturing on July 5, 2027, which attracted GH¢480.71m across six transactions and closed at a yield of approximately 8.96%.
That instrument alone accounted for roughly 29.27% of all Treasury bill turnover and almost 23.74% of total GFIM activity for the session.
The broader Treasury bill market also showed substantial activity across several shorter and medium-dated maturities.
A notable feature was the large volume recorded in the November 23, 2026 bill, where GH¢87.51m changed hands across 1,217 transactions, making it one of the most frequently traded securities of the day.
The instrument closed at a yield of approximately 5.62%, underlining the significant yield differential between nearer maturities and longer-dated Treasury paper.
Across the short end, closing yields ranged from below 5.00% on selected December 2026 maturities to close to 9.00% on longer-dated securities.
The September 28, 2026 bill closed at a yield of approximately 9.68%, while the December 21, 2026 maturity ended at about 4.90%.
The dispersion shows that pricing remains highly sensitive to individual maturity points rather than moving uniformly across the Treasury bill curve.
Activity in DDEP securities was dominated by the 2023-GC-5 bond, maturing on February 11, 2031.
The instrument recorded GH¢130.00mn across three transactions and closed at a yield of 14.28%, making it the largest outright DDEP trade of the session.
It represented about 42.18% of total DDEP bond turnover, highlighting the continued concentration of liquidity in selected post-restructuring maturities.
The 2032 DDEP bond followed with GH¢100.00mn in turnover and closed at a yield of 14.00%, while the 2027 GC-1 security attracted GH¢51.05mn and ended at 10.52%.
The 2028 A-2 bond recorded GH¢15.00mn, while smaller volumes were spread across the 2028 GC-2, 2029 GC-3, 2037 GC-11 and 2038 GC-12 instruments.
The pattern shows that secondary-market demand remains selective, with investors focusing heavily on a narrow set of maturities.
Yield movements across DDEP bonds were mixed. The 2031 GC-5 yield edged higher from 14.24% to 14.28%, while the 2032 GC-6 declined from 14.12% to 14.00%.
The 2037 GC-11 rose more sharply from 15.15% to 15.50%, while the 2038 GC-12 moved marginally higher to 14.89%, indicating that longer-duration risk continues to command a premium.
Sell-and-buy-back activity also remained concentrated in a handful of DDEP securities. The 2037 GC-11 bond led that segment with GH¢18.76mn across six trades at a yield of 14.50%, while the 2033 GC-7 security attracted GH¢14.97mn.
The 2035 GC-9 bond contributed GH¢12.99m and the 2030 GC-4 added GH¢11.14m, showing that repo-style transactions remain an important source of liquidity in the longer-dated government securities market.
Corporate bond trading remained marginal relative to sovereign securities. Ghana Cocoa Board instruments accounted for all recorded corporate activity, with the August 2027 bond generating GH¢1.99m across three trades and the August 2028 maturity recording GH¢1.11mn across three transactions.
The corporate segment’s total GH¢4.20m represented just 0.21% of total GFIM turnover.
Old government bonds recorded only one transaction during the session. The September 2027 security attracted GH¢447,191, closing at a yield of 16.75% and a price of approximately 101.71.
New government notes and bonds, meanwhile, recorded no turnover despite quoted closing yields of 11.50% on the four-year bond and 12.51% on the seven-year instrument.
The September 23 session therefore showed a market with substantial headline liquidity but significant concentration beneath the surface.
Treasury bills alone accounted for GH¢1.64bn of the GH¢2.02bn traded, while one Treasury instrument contributed nearly GH¢481m and one DDEP bond accounted for GH¢130m.
That leaves corporate securities, new government bonds and older sovereign instruments occupying only a very small share of secondary-market activity.
For investors, the session reinforces the preference for liquidity and short-duration sovereign exposure while showing that selected DDEP maturities continue to attract meaningful institutional demand at yields around 14.00% and above.
For market operators and policymakers, the figures highlight a persistent structural challenge: Ghana has an active fixed-income market, but liquidity remains overwhelmingly concentrated in government securities and a limited number of maturities.
The next stage of market development will depend on whether that depth can gradually extend into corporate debt and newer government instruments rather than remaining centred on Treasury bills and DDEP securities.
