- Treasury Bills Take 52% of GFIM Activity as Secondary-Market Turnover Hits GH¢883m
Trading on the Ghana Fixed Income Market reached GH¢883.18 million on Tuesday, September 15, with investors concentrating activity overwhelmingly in Treasury bills and Domestic Debt Exchange Programme bonds as liquidity remained thin across conventional government and corporate securities.
The market recorded 420 trades during the session, according to the GFIM trading report, with Treasury bills contributing GH¢457.64 million and DDEP bonds accounting for GH¢375.73 million.
Together, the two segments generated about 94.4% of total market turnover, reinforcing the concentration of secondary-market liquidity in short-dated government securities and selected restructured government bonds.
Treasury bills were the largest segment, accounting for approximately 51.8% of the GH¢883.18 million traded. The segment registered 356 transactions, significantly more than any other security category, highlighting continued investor preference for instruments offering shorter maturities and comparatively high liquidity.
The most actively traded bill was the Government of Ghana security maturing on February 1, 2027, which recorded GH¢108.19 million across 45 transactions. The instrument closed at a yield of approximately 5.64% and a price of GH¢97.89.
That single maturity represented almost 24% of Treasury-bill turnover. Activity was also substantial in the July 26, 2027 maturity, where GH¢69.55 million changed hands across five transactions. The security closed at a yield of about 9.40%, reflecting the steeper yield available further along the Treasury-bill maturity curve.
Other pockets of liquidity were distributed across several 2027 maturities, suggesting that investors were not limiting exposure solely to instruments approaching redemption but were also positioning across the short end of the government yield curve.
DDEP bonds were the second-largest source of activity, contributing 42.5% of total GFIM turnover despite recording only 20 transactions.
That disparity between turnover and transaction count illustrates the institutional nature of much of the activity in the restructured government-bond market, where individual transactions can involve substantial volumes.
The standout instrument was the DDEP bond maturing February 10, 2032, which recorded GH¢228.90 million from just three trades.
The security alone accounted for approximately 60.9% of all DDEP bond turnover and almost 26% of the entire GH¢883.18 million traded on GFIM during the session.
Its closing yield increased to 14.27% from an opening level of 14.09%, while its closing price settled at GH¢80.90. The movement reflects the inverse relationship between bond prices and yields, with the security continuing to trade materially below par.
Other DDEP securities also attracted meaningful volumes. The February 2028 DDEP bond recorded GH¢40.80 million across three transactions and closed at a yield of 12.31%, while the February 2031 maturity generated GH¢41.56 million from three trades and ended with a yield of 14.11%.
The February 2027 DDEP bond attracted GH¢36.98 million across five transactions, closing at a yield of 10.39%.
The strong concentration in selected DDEP maturities indicates that liquidity remains uneven across the restructured curve. While some instruments are recording significant institutional activity, several longer-dated DDEP bonds registered no trades during Tuesday’s session.
Corporate-bond activity remained comparatively modest at GH¢46.57 million, representing about 5.3% of overall market turnover.
The segment was dominated almost entirely by Ghana Cocoa Board securities.
A COCOBOD bond maturing on August 30, 2027 generated GH¢41.76 million across 11 trades, equivalent to almost 90% of corporate-bond turnover. The instrument closed at a price of GH¢101.57.
A second COCOBOD security maturing in August 2028 recorded GH¢4.81 million from nine transactions and ended the session at GH¢102.74.
The concentration means virtually all corporate-bond liquidity during Tuesday’s session was tied to COCOBOD, while securities issued by other corporate borrowers attracted no recorded turnover.
Trading in newly issued conventional Government of Ghana notes and bonds remained particularly subdued.
The segment recorded only GH¢308,565 across four transactions. The four-year government bond maturing in September 2030 accounted for GH¢258,565 of that amount through three trades. Its closing yield eased to 11.52% from 11.70%, while the closing price rose to approximately GH¢101.49.
The seven-year bond maturing in March 2033 recorded a single GH¢50,000 transaction and closed at a yield of 12.51%.
Old Government of Ghana notes and bonds contributed an even smaller GH¢283,800 across five trades, leaving the segment with only a marginal share of overall activity.
Sell-and-buy-back transactions involving government notes and bonds totalled GH¢2.65 million across 15 trades. The largest individual instrument in that segment was the February 2027 DDEP bond, which generated GH¢975,000 across seven transactions.
Tuesday’s trading therefore presented a market with substantial headline turnover but highly concentrated liquidity.
Treasury bills and DDEP securities accounted for more than GH¢833 million of the GH¢883.18 million traded, leaving less than 6% for corporate bonds, conventional government securities and sell-and-buy-back transactions combined.
The pattern is significant for Ghana’s evolving fixed-income market. Strong Treasury-bill liquidity reflects the continued importance of short-term government instruments in portfolio management, while sizable transactions in selected DDEP securities suggest institutional investors are increasingly establishing market prices across parts of the post-restructuring government yield curve.
But the limited activity in conventional government bonds and the narrow corporate segment show that deeper market development remains uneven.
For GFIM, the next stage will therefore involve more than increasing aggregate turnover. A deeper market will require liquidity to spread across maturities, issuers and instruments rather than remain concentrated in a handful of government securities.
Tuesday’s GH¢883.18 million session demonstrates that capital is moving through Ghana’s fixed-income market. The more important question is whether that activity can progressively broaden beyond Treasury bills and a small number of heavily traded DDEP bonds.
