By Elorm Desewu
From June to August 2019, the government, through the Bank of Ghana, plans to raise GH¢10.35 billion, from the local money market through the issuance of Treasury Bills, Notes and bonds.
Of the amount, GH¢9.87billion would be used to rollover maturities and the remaining GH¢476.63 million would be a fresh issuance to meet the government’s financing requirements.
From now to August 2019, the Bank of Ghana would issue a 91 Treasury Bill worth GHC5.4 billion, a 182 day bill worth GHC1.9 billion, a 364-day bill worth GHC850 million, a 2 year bond worth GHC600 million, a 3 year bond worth GHC300million, a 10 year bond worth GHC300million, a 15year bond worth GHC300 million, a 20 year bond worth GHC450 million.
The Calendar was developed based on the 2019 Net Domestic Financing (NDF) as stipulated in the 2019 Budget and Economic Policy of Government, domestic debt maturities and the MTDS for 2019-2022. The calendar shows the securities that are intended to be issued for the period June to August, 2019.
The Calendar also takes into consideration Government’s liability management programme, market developments (both domestic and international) and the Debt Management objective of lengthening the maturity profile of the public debt.
Per this calendar, Government aims to build benchmark bonds through the issuance of the following instruments: the 91-day and 182- day Treasury Bills will be issued weekly; the 364-day bill will however be issued on a bi-weekly also through the primary auction, with settlement being the transaction date plus one working day; Securities from 2-Year up to 20-Year will be issued through the book-building method; the issuance of the 10-Year, 15-Year and 20-Year bonds would be shelf offerings available to be issued over a period of time; and
Consistent with the MTDS, the government may announce tap-ins/reopening of existing instruments depending on market conditions.
The 2019 debt Strategy also envisages the issuance of medium-term domestic instruments to help address cost associated with the financial sector clean-up. With zero central bank financing of the budget still in force, the strategy further envisages a cash buffer beyond the net domestic financing to cater for liquidity and liability management.
To ensure an effective implementation of this strategy, an annual borrowing and recovery plan will be published for 2019 in line with Section 60 (5) of the PFM Law.
Government intends to further develop the primary and secondary markets by reforming the primary dealership framework and facilitates securities trading on the domestic market through the GFIM.
