A banking and finance consultant has outlined nine strategic recommendations for the Bank of Ghana (BoG) as it advances plans to issue diaspora bonds, arguing that turning the initiative into a credible financing tool will require more than patriotic appeal.
Dr. Richmond Atuahene’s recommendations follow a high-level roundtable held in Virginia, United States, on April 19, 2026, where BoG Governor Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama called on Ghanaians abroad to see themselves not merely as remittance senders but as active co-builders of Ghana’s economy. Remittances reached nearly $7.8 billion by the end of 2025, up from $4.6 billion in 2024, and at roughly 6 percent of gross domestic product now exceed foreign direct investment.
Dr. Atuahene’s central argument is that the bonds must be structurally engineered, not simply marketed on goodwill. His first recommendation is that diaspora bonds be positioned as a core development tool, tied directly to visible infrastructure such as roads, railways, energy, and water systems, so investors can track the tangible impact of their capital.
On financing architecture, he proposes leveraging remittances through securitisation. By packaging expected foreign currency inflows into instruments backed by special purpose vehicles, Ghana could access larger pools of capital at lower cost. He notes that Brazil and Turkey have used similar structures to secure better credit ratings than their sovereign borrowing would otherwise allow.
Trust, he argues, must be earned through transparency. Each bond issuance should be linked to clearly defined, large-scale projects so that investors can monitor where their money goes and hold authorities accountable.
To reinforce credibility, Dr. Atuahene recommends securing institutional backing from organisations such as the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which can provide guarantees and risk mitigation that reassure investors about both political and commercial exposure.
A major structural gap he identifies is the absence of reliable diaspora data. Without a comprehensive profile of where Ghanaians abroad live, what they earn, and how they invest, even well-designed instruments may fail to reach the right audience. He calls on the BoG to invest in systematic diaspora mapping.
On the legal side, he argues that new legislation may be needed to ensure investor protection, transparent fund management, and enforceable bondholder rights. For Dr. Atuahene, the shadow of Ghana’s 2022 Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) continues to weigh on investor sentiment, making trust the single biggest obstacle the initiative must overcome.
To directly address investor concerns, he recommends issuing bonds in stable foreign currencies such as dollars, euros, or pounds to eliminate exchange rate risk, offering tax incentives to improve returns, and securing partial guarantees from institutions such as the World Bank or Afreximbank.
His final recommendation is flexibility. Designing bonds that allow investors with business interests in Ghana to receive payments in local currency, and that balance returns, liquidity, and accessibility, will broaden participation across a diverse diaspora base.
Dr. Atuahene described diaspora bonds as a test of trust, policy coherence, and execution. For the initiative to succeed, he said, Ghana must combine patriotic appeal with rigorous financial engineering, credible institutions, and transparent governance.
