Treasury bills and bonds dominate Ghana's debt market, with July public debt put at GH₵733.9bn

Pinned summary · as of 05:03

Ghana's fixed-income market is driven almost entirely by government paper, two separate market reports show. One looks back at August and the other covers the session of Tuesday, 29 September. The Vaultz News also carried Bank of Ghana data on the country's public debt at the end of July.

What we know

• Nearly all fixed-income trading in Ghana is in government paper. The Vaultz News, using SIC Brokerage data for August, and NorvanReports, covering Tuesday's session, both show Treasury bills and government bonds taking almost the whole market, with corporate debt a sliver.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  SIC Brokerage, cited by The Vaultz News, valued August fixed-income dealings at GH₵43.20 billion, more than double the GH₵21.32 billion of August 2025 (a 102.65% jump). It also reported volume of about 48.99 billion securities, up 104.77% on a year earlier. No other report has confirmed these numbers.
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  In the same August breakdown, SIC Brokerage said government notes and bonds made up 52.77% of activity, Treasury bills 45.98% and corporate bonds 1.25%. It added that the 364-day bill absorbed 56% of the money raised in the month, while the 91-day bill took a third and the 182-day bill a tenth, in rounded terms.
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  SIC Brokerage reported that Treasury Tender #2024 drew bids of GH₵8.20 billion, of which the government took GH₵7.21 billion, and described investor demand as strong. It said yields fell at the latest auction, by 11 basis points to 4.69% on the 91-day bill, 17 points to 6.51% on the 182-day bill and two points to 10.10% on the 364-day bill.
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  The Vaultz News, citing the Bank of Ghana, put public debt at GH₵733.9 billion at the end of July 2026, or 45.9% of GDP. That is GH₵14.4 billion above June's GH₵719.5 billion and GH₵92.8 billion above the year-end 2025 stock of GH₵641.1 billion. The ratio to GDP was 44.7% before the latest reading. Only this report carries the figures.
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  According to the same data, domestic debt reached GH₵396.7 billion in July against GH₵391.1 billion in June. It was GH₵333.8 billion in December and has since added GH₵62.9 billion. External debt was worth US$28.8 billion in July, slightly under the US$28.9 billion of June, yet in cedis it stood at GH₵337.2 billion, above June's GH₵328.4 billion. The Vaultz News attributed the gap to exchange-rate valuation and said the July increase came from both domestic obligations and the cedi value of foreign debt.
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  The Vaultz News said the 45% debt target is a medium-term goal to be met by 2034 and not an immediate cap, so the July ratio is not by itself a breach. It reported that the IMF rates Ghana's debt risk as moderate and warned that gains could be undone by swings in commodity prices, contingent liabilities or pressure to refinance, and that large restructured domestic bonds fall due in 2027 and 2028. It also noted a primary surplus of 1.4% of GDP by July against a fiscal-rule floor of 1.5%, saying seven months cannot settle compliance.
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  NorvanReports, citing a Ghana Fixed Income Market trading report, said turnover on Tuesday, 29 September was GH₵1.59bn across 297 transactions. DDEP bonds accounted for GH₵996.39m (62.5%) and Treasury bills for GH₵527.81m (33.1%), with 364-day bills taking about GH₵511.75m of the bill total. The February 2029 DDEP bond alone drew about GH₵601.23m and closed at a yield of 13.74%. These figures have not been matched by another report.
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  NorvanReports argued that the concentration in a few instruments leaves the market shallower than the GH₵1.59bn total suggests, and that the lean towards 364-day bills does not amount to a broad return of long-term confidence. It called for more corporate issuance, trustworthy credit ratings and fuller disclosure as the way to widen the market.
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  NorvanReports reported that the Ghana Stock Exchange traded GH₵50.97 million on Tuesday, 29 September, with 8.46 million shares changing hands. MTN Ghana supplied 7.48 million of those shares and GH₵48.71 million of the value, and its price slipped GH₵0.03 to GH₵6.51. Enterprise Group gained 5% to GH₵7.35. The publication noted that no official index numbers had been published for the session, which left the impact on the benchmarks unclear.

Why it matters for Ghana

Treasury bill and bond yields set what banks, pension funds and individual savers earn on government paper, and they also shape what the state pays to borrow. If the Bank of Ghana debt figures reported by The Vaultz News hold, the size of the debt stock bears on how much public money goes to servicing it. Heavy trading in a few instruments, and in a single stock such as MTN Ghana, matters to investors in Accra who need to buy and sell without moving prices.