Treasury raises GHS 6.8bn from short-term debt auction; sees 49% oversubscription
The government’s treasury bill auction target of GHS 4,587 million received GHS 2,258 million bids more from primary dealers in the wholesale auction of the Government’s short-term debt securities by the Bank of Ghana.
Total bids made by primary dealers amounted to GHS 6,963 million with GHS 6,845 million bids made accepted by the Treasury indicating a 98% acceptance rate.
The GHS 6,845 million accepted bids were detailed in the BoG auction results following the Central Bank’s post-auction meeting with the Central Securities Depository (CSD) and the Finance Ministry on Friday, February 9, 2024.
The GHS 6,845 million bids accepted by the Treasury imply a 49.2% oversubscription rate above the initial GHS 4,587 million target.
This is despite the reduction in yields across the three tenors – 91–Day, 182-Day, and 364-Day.
Among the various tenors, the 91-day Bill attracted the highest number of subscriptions, followed by the 364-Day Bill and the 182-Day Bill.
The successful bids after the auction amounted to GHS 2,931 million, GHS 1,627 million, and GHS 2,287 million for the 91–Day, 182-Day, and 364-Day tenors respectively.
The auction yields settled at averages of 27.99% for the 91-Day Bill and 30.43% for the 182-Day Bill with both declining by 30bps and 36bps respectively compared to the average rates for the previous auction.
The 364-Day bill also saw a yield decline of 40bps to settle at 30.99%.
Looking ahead to the next auction, the treasury aims to raise some GHS 4,865 million through the issuance of the 91,182, and 364 Day bills to cater for impending maturities.
Meanwhile, the government is expected to borrow about GHS 180 billion via treasury bills in 2024.
This will be 21% more than the GHS 149.92 billion raised in 2023.
The estimated maturities are GHS 150 billion, a growth of 28% over that of last year.
The government is also expected to raise more than 50% of the GHS 61.9 billion budget deficit through treasury bills.
Indeed, treasury bills are set to remain the dominant driver of activity on the Ghana Fixed Income Market this year.
