By Elorm Desewu
The government through the Bank of Ghana, (BoG) would raise GHC22.3 billion by issuing notes and bonds for the first quarter of 2021 from the money market.
Of this amount, GH¢19.7billion would be used to rollover maturities and the remaining GH¢2.6billion would be a fresh issuance to meet Government’s financing requirements.
This debt Calendar is part of Government’s effort to improve market transparency in the issuance of Government securities.
The Calendar is developed based on the Net Domestic Financing provided in the 2021 Expenditure in Advance Appropriation and the domestic maturities. The Calendar shows the securities that are intended to be issued in respect of Government’s Public Sector Borrowing Requirements for the period January to March, 2021.
Government is expected to update the issuance Calendar on a monthly rolling basis, to reflect a full quarter financing programme.
In addition, the Calendar takes into consideration Government’s liability management programme, market developments (both domestic and international) and the Treasury & Debt Management objective of lengthening the maturity profile of the public debt.
Per this Calendar, the 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 Treasury Bill will be issued bi-weekly, and also through the primary auction with settlement being the transaction date plus one working day; Securities of 2-year up to 7-year will be issued through the book-building method; Issuance of the 20-year bond as a shelf offering will be re-opened based on investors request and on market conditions; and Consistent with the MTDS, we may announce tap-ins/reopening of other existing instruments depending on market conditions.
