Last week, the total turnover of Ghana’s bond market decreased by 54.8% to ¢954.15 million as market activity slowed down.
This can be attributed to the government’s discussion on the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). Among the October 2024, May 2023, and June 2028 papers, the trading activities were mainly driven by the volumes of ¢107.60 million, ¢133.78 million, and ¢105.39 million, respectively.
Unfortunately, market analysts predict that there will be a continued slowdown in activity this week since the deadline for participating in the DDEP ends today, January 31, 2023. In the previous week, market activity improved by 319.2% to ¢2.11 billion as the DDEP gained momentum.
However, the government made significant progress in the DDEP last week, as major stakeholders reached an agreement on several program terms.
The exchange memorandum’s clauses that previously gave the government the power to vary the exchange terms were removed, and the new bonds in 2023 will have a 5% coupon rate.