Government to issue Ghc1.5b bond Thursday

Ghana's debt will escalate further on Thursday, October 22, 2015 because the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on behalf of government will issue a three-year fixed rate bond to the tune of Ghc1.5 billion.

The instrument which is opened to both local and over­seas investors will be issued at par.

Information posted on the website of BoG said the bond would be redeemed by the issuer on October 25, 2018.

According to the Central Bank, the instrument will bear a coupon rate equal to the highest competitive bid accepted at the auction for the security.

The coupon rate will subsequently be carried out throughout the term of the security.

The minimum bid however will be Ghc50,000 and mul­tiples of Ghc1,000 thereafter.

The Finder gathered that the issuance of the debt instru­ment has become necessary because of the government's financial situation whilst some of the funds raised would be used to settle maturing debts and fund some capital proj­ects.

Already, the International Monetary Fund has predicted that Ghana's public debt stock will hit 72 percent of GDP, about Ghc83 billion by December 31, 2015.

Government's borrowing spree also continued on the domestic market as it borrowed Ghc125.2 million in treas­ury notes alone from the domestic bond market between July 6 and September 14, 2015.

Out of this, 79.6 million which was the biggest was issued on September 11, 2015 Ghc32 million and Ghc5 million issued on July 24, 2015 and August 28, 2015 re­spectively followed suit.

The yield for the 2-year notes was however 23 percent, higher than the previous 22.5 percent.