Ghana has successfully raised GH¢2.7 billion through its first seven-year domestic bond auction since the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), marking a significant milestone in the country’s effort to rebuild confidence in its long-term financial markets and reduce its dependence on short-term borrowing.
Total bids from investors reached GH¢3.1 billion, exceeding the amount the government accepted, with a coupon rate of 12.5 percent agreed upon through a book-building process. The bond, which will mature on March 29, 2033, was launched on March 30 and closed for bidding on April 1. Settlement is scheduled for April 7, 2026. The instrument will be listed on the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), allowing investors to trade their holdings in a secondary market rather than holding them to maturity.
The auction result closes a three-year period during which Ghana was effectively barred from issuing new domestic bonds, a restriction introduced in 2023 as part of the conditions attached to the DDEP and the country’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) support programme. That restriction formally expired in March 2026, and the Ministry of Finance moved quickly to prepare and launch the first issuance.
The oversubscription, with bids exceeding the government’s accepted amount, is being read by market observers as a clear signal of returning investor appetite, albeit a cautious one. Analysts who spoke to JoyBusiness described the outcome as favourable and noted that the 12.5 percent coupon rate is slightly more competitive than the prevailing yields on pre-DDEP bonds currently trading in the secondary market, which were running at approximately 13.5 percent as of March 30.
The broader significance of the auction lies in what it represents for Ghana’s debt management. Since the debt crisis took hold in 2022, the government has relied almost entirely on short-term 91-day, 182-day and 364-day Treasury bills to finance its budget, creating a cycle of constant refinancing that experts have described as structurally fragile. Treasury bill rates, which peaked at 28.9 percent during the crisis, have since fallen to around 10.7 percent, their lowest level in 14 years. That compression at the short end of the market helped create conditions for the seven-year bond to price at levels that are manageable for the government’s budget.
The auction also serves a broader market function. Without longer-dated bonds in active issuance, Ghana’s sovereign yield curve, the benchmark that financial institutions use to price long-term loans, mortgages and corporate debt, had effectively collapsed. Rebuilding it is a stated objective of the Ministry of Finance, and the seven-year instrument is intended as the first step in that process.
The government plans to raise GH¢15.231 billion through a combination of Treasury bills and bonds between March and June 2026, with the funds earmarked for budget support and the refinancing of maturing obligations. Beyond that window, the Ministry has also signalled plans to raise GH¢10 billion in infrastructure bonds under the Big Push initiative, structured as two GH¢5 billion tranches in the second and fourth quarters of the year, in 10-year and 15-year instruments.
Six financial institutions were appointed as Bond Market Specialists to manage the issuance: Absa Bank Ghana, CalBank, Fincap Securities, GCB Bank, One Africa Securities and Stanbic Bank Ghana. The minimum bid was set at GH¢50,000, positioning the instrument primarily for institutional and high-net-worth investors, though both resident and non-resident investors were eligible to participate.
Ghana’s macroeconomic conditions have improved substantially since the depths of the crisis. Inflation fell to 3.3 percent in February 2026, close to a three-decade low, while the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has cut its policy rate by 14 percentage points since July 2025, bringing it to 14 percent. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaged 6.1 percent in the first three quarters of 2025. The government has also met every coupon payment on restructured DDEP bonds since the programme concluded, including a $909 million cash payment in February 2026, the sixth distribution and the second paid entirely in cash.
