Market News

ACCRA, July 25 (Reuters) – Ghana’s government will resume domestic bond sales in the second half of this year by reopening existing medium-term issues, the finance minister said, following a two-year hiatus in the wake of its debt restructuring.

The West African gold and cocoa producer is emerging from a debt default, which involved an overhaul of external and local government debt, handing haircuts to investors that effectively locked the government out of the market for longer-term debt.

That meant the government had to rely on short-term Treasury bills to raise funds locally.

“The financing of the 2025 budget will involve a gradual re-entry into the bond market through the reopening of medium-term instruments,” Cassiel Ato Forson told parliament during a mid-year budget review late on Thursday.

Forson said the government would start selecting new bookrunners from early August with a focus on banks and investment dealers that could help boost market distribution and advise on pricing and structuring.

The government has set up a dollar-denominated sinking fund, and another in the local cedi currency, to meet debt repayments in the coming years, Forson said.

“Beginning August 2025, the Ministry of Finance will commence the building of cash buffers to support the repayment of Ghana’s domestic debt service obligations … which will fall due in 2027 and 2028,” he said.

The dollar sinking fund will target international bond redemptions, he said.

(Reporting by Emmanuel Bruce; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Helen Popper)