Ghana’s fixed income market showed concentrated trading activity on Monday, September 29, 2025, with treasury bills commanding overwhelming investor attention while the corporate bond segment recorded zero transactions for the session.
The Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) trading report reveals a stark bifurcation in investor preferences, continuing a pattern where short-term government securities attract liquidity while longer-dated instruments and private sector bonds struggle for traction.
Treasury bills across all tenors generated the session’s heaviest volumes. The 91-day bill maturing October 20, 2025, recorded the largest single-instrument turnover at 585 million cedis face value, trading at prices near par. This concentration in near-term maturities reflects persistent investor caution about locking funds into longer commitments despite improving economic conditions.
The 364-day segment also saw substantial activity, with the bill maturing July 27, 2026, generating 151.5 million cedis in trades. Investors clearly favor the flexibility and liquidity of shorter instruments over the yield pickup available in bonds, even though government bonds offered yields ranging from 15% to 24% across various maturities.
Bank of Ghana (BOG) bills contributed meaningful volumes as well. The 56-day instruments recorded up to 169 million cedis in single transactions, while 273-day BOG bills saw 77.5 million cedis change hands. These central bank instruments serve dual purposes—managing liquidity in the banking system while providing additional short-term investment options for cash managers.
Government bonds presented a more mixed picture. New Government of Ghana (GoG) notes and bonds saw selective trading, with the 2023-GC-1 series maturing February 16, 2027, recording 35 million cedis across three transactions. Yields on these restructured securities ranged from just over 15% for shorter maturities to nearly 17% for bonds extending to 2038.
The old bond market showed minimal activity, with only the 10-year bond maturing November 2, 2026, recording a single trade of 4,756 cedis at a closing yield of 24.04%. This elevated yield reflects the credit risk premium investors demand for older, non-restructured securities compared to the new instruments created following Ghana’s 2023 debt exchange.
What stands out most dramatically is the complete absence of corporate bond trading. Despite multiple issuers listed—including Letshego Ghana, Bayport Savings and Loans, Ghana Cocoa Board, Izwe Savings, Kasapreko Company Limited, and Quantum Terminals—not a single corporate security traded during Monday’s session.
This corporate bond drought contrasts sharply with earlier periods in 2025. Recent sessions saw Cocoa Board securities generating over 20 million cedis across multiple transactions, demonstrating that corporate bonds can attract investor interest when conditions align. Monday’s zero activity suggests either a temporary liquidity squeeze in that segment or broader investor risk aversion toward private sector credit.
Sell/buy-back transactions, essentially repurchase agreements using government bonds as collateral, showed more robust activity. Multiple GoG bond series participated in these repo-style trades, with individual transactions reaching 45 million cedis and yields spanning from under 12% to over 50%, reflecting varying collateral quality and counterparty considerations.
The market structure reveals Ghana’s post-restructuring fixed income landscape. Following the 2023 debt exchange program implemented under International Monetary Fund (IMF) supervision, Ghana’s government securities now split between “new” bonds created through the restructuring and “old” bonds that weren’t exchanged. The yield differential between these categories—often several hundred basis points—reflects investor perceptions about credit quality and legal protections.
For treasury management professionals, Monday’s trading patterns underscore the challenge of finding yield while maintaining liquidity. Treasury bills offer safety and flexibility but at relatively compressed returns given inflation dynamics. Government bonds provide higher nominal yields but lock investors into longer commitments in an environment where economic policy remains subject to IMF program conditionality through 2026.
The corporate bond silence raises questions about capital formation in Ghana’s private sector. Companies seeking to raise funds through bond markets face competition from government securities offering double-digit yields with sovereign backing. Unless corporate issuers can demonstrate compelling credit stories or structure instruments with features that offset higher risk, they’ll struggle to attract capital away from government paper.
Market observers will monitor whether corporate bond activity revives as macroeconomic stability improves. Recent sessions reflected growing investor confidence amid the country’s economic stabilization and declining inflation trajectory, but Monday’s data suggests that confidence hasn’t yet translated into appetite for private sector debt.
The concentration in treasury bills also signals that despite progress on inflation and fiscal consolidation, investors maintain a relatively short time horizon for Ghanaian cedi assets. Until that dynamic shifts, the government will face challenges rolling longer-dated debt, and corporate issuers will find bond financing difficult regardless of their fundamental creditworthiness.
For now, the message from Monday’s trading is clear: investors want short, government-backed, and liquid. Everything else remains a harder sell.