Treasury Bills Tighten Grip as GH¢1.38bn Fixed-Income Turnover Exposes Bond Market Liquidity Gap

Ghana’s fixed-income market recorded a robust GH¢1.38 billion in turnover on Tuesday, July 28, but beneath the impressive headline figure lies a market increasingly dependent on Treasury bills, underscoring persistent liquidity challenges in the country’s longer-term debt market.

Treasury bills accounted for GH¢1.00 billion, representing 72.88% of total turnover, while 4,684 of the market’s 4,703 transactions were executed in the short-term government securities segment. The figures reinforce investors’ continued preference for liquid, lower-risk instruments amid evolving interest-rate expectations and the post-debt restructuring environment.

The standout performer was the Treasury bill maturing on July 26, 2027, which attracted GH¢394.03 million in trades and closed with a 12.85% yield, reflecting sustained demand for longer-dated bills that offer relatively attractive returns without exposing investors to the volatility associated with long-term government bonds.

Another heavily traded instrument, the October 26, 2026 Treasury bill, generated GH¢206.09 million across more than 4,200 transactions, indicating broad market participation rather than a handful of institutional block trades.

While activity remained concentrated in Treasury bills, Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) bonds contributed GH¢221.69 million, with nearly all of that volume flowing into the 8.80% February 2030 government bond. The bond traded at a discounted price of about GH¢82.59 and yielded 15.21%, highlighting investors’ demand for higher compensation on medium-term government debt following Ghana’s debt restructuring.

The pricing also reflects a broader reality within Ghana’s bond market: many DDEP securities continue to trade below face value because their coupon rates remain below prevailing market yields.

Meanwhile, the corporate bond market remained largely inactive, generating just GH¢796,600, or 0.06% of total turnover. Trading was limited to a handful of Ghana Cocoa Board securities, underscoring the continued lack of depth and liquidity in Ghana’s private debt market.

Repurchase, or sell-buy-back, transactions reached GH¢151.18 million, signalling that financial institutions continue to rely heavily on government securities as collateral for short-term funding and liquidity management.

Norvan Insight

Tuesday’s trading session paints a picture of a financial market with ample liquidity but limited diversification. Investors are overwhelmingly concentrating their funds in Treasury bills, while activity in government bonds remains selective and the corporate bond market continues to struggle for relevance.

For policymakers, the numbers reinforce the need to deepen Ghana’s secondary bond market to improve price discovery, broaden investment options and reduce the economy’s dependence on short-term government borrowing. Until liquidity spreads beyond Treasury bills and a narrow group of DDEP bonds, Ghana’s fixed-income market will remain active in value but relatively shallow in breadth.