Work has begun in earnest towards preparing the ground for the Government of Ghana to begin issuing dedicated Infrastructure Bonds to finance a package of large public works under President John Dramani Mahama’s “Big Push” programme and other priority projects.
The move will mark a strategic re-entry into the domestic bond market after post- public debt restructuring restrictions expire in February 2026.
Staff and consultants at both the Ministry of Finance and the Securities & Exchange Commission – Ghana’s capital market regulator have begun developing the legal and market frameworks needed to support infrastructure bonds which suggests the bonds are likely to be market-standard fixed-income securities with medium-to-long tenors and secondary-market trading facilitation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has confirmed that infrastructure bonds are among a slate of new investment products under development
Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson announced the decision to issue infrastructure bonds to Parliament in the 2026 budget presentation.
According to the 2026 Budget Statement, “government will begin the issuance of domestic infrastructure bonds to fund critical infrastructure in the 2026 budget and beyond.” The statement added that this will form part of a broader medium-term debt strategy to lower rollover risks and create fiscal space for productive investment
The Budget presentation revealed that infrastructure bonds will be targeted at financing clearly specified projects notably roads within the Big Push Infrastructure Programme, energy projects such as the planned gas-to-power investments and a 1,200MW state-owned plant, and other long-gestation capital projects.
The Budget also makes clear that capital expenditure will rise sharply in 2026, with GH¢57.5 billion earmarked for capex and roughly GH¢30 billion directed to the Big Push roads programme. However how much of this will be financed through infrastructure bond issuances has not been finalized yet.
Detailed issuance mechanics size of tranches, coupon structure, listing, and whether any instruments will carry project-specific security or state guarantees are expected to be published ahead of the first offerings in 2026.
While full prospectus details are not yet published, Ghana’s stated aim of deepening the domestic capital market implies the bonds will be open to a wide range of investors: domestic institutional investors (pension funds, insurers, banks), high-net-worth individuals and retail investors via offerings through banks and licensed brokers. Government commentary has also left the door open for participation by non-resident and foreign institutional investors should appropriate registration and currency-risk arrangements be put in place.
Instructively, Abena Amoah, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, has advocated for both domestic and international investor participation in bond issues to finance commercially viable infrastructure projects such as tolled roads, energy and other public economic infrastructure. Here she is looking for Ghana’s pension funds to show up.
“The pension funds represent about three million of the 15 million people. Even accounting for those not contributing, that’s a large number of Ghanaians doing savings. We need to create a framework to pull these monies together and give them opportunities to grow.”
She has pointed out that so far the private pension funds have been relatively conservative in building their respective investment portfolios, compared to the state-owned SSNIT, but now they have grown solid enough to invest more enthusiastically.
However she has warned that “Investors want to be clear on what their funds will be used for, and the thoroughness of the underlying investment documentation and their recourse in the event of inability to meet debt servicing requirements as and when due”
Their stance follows the negative impacts on the cash flows of portfolio investors from the controversial but necessary Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, executed in 2022 and 2023 which extended the tenors and lowered the coupon rates of several types of government medium and long term sovereign bonds worth some GHc97.7 billion.
Recognizing this, the 2026 Budget explicitly promises “strict safeguards, transparency, and performance audits to ensure every dollar earns real value.” Indeed prior to that announcement, President Mahama himself declared that future bond issuances by government would be tied to specific projects, thus ring-fencing them.
True to this promise the structure announced in the 2026 budget ties issuance to a Medium-Term Debt Strategy that emphasizes smoothing maturities through buybacks and targeted cash-management operations. Analysts say these protections will need to be reinforced by legal ring-fencing of bond proceeds, independent project-level fiduciary oversight and clear repayment waterfalls measures the government says it is designing.
Equally importantly, going forward, new institutional debt issuances to be listed on Ghana’s capital markets will be given formal investment ratings to guide potential investors as to the credibility and safety of the debt issues being offered them.
The ratings, which will be mandatory, will apply to debt securities issuances on the main board of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE); the Ghana Alternative Stock Exchange (GAX) established for smaller companies that do not meet the listing requirements of the GSE itself; and the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) where both corporate and government debt securities are traded.
To this end the Securities & Exchange Commission has already licensed two ratings companies Augusto & Company as well as Beacon Ratings to do such ratings while some more applications for licenses to serve as ratings agencies are also before the capital markets regulator.
By Toma Imirhe
