Demand beat the government’s target by GH¢1.47 billion, but more than 70 percent of accepted money went into the shortest three-month bill.
Government of Ghana short-term borrowing drew heavy interest at last week's Treasury bill auction, with investors putting forward GH¢5.01 billion against a target of GH¢3.54 billion.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG), the country's central bank, accepted GH¢4.11 billion of that — about GH¢563.96 million more than it had set out to raise. The auction, listed as Tender 2032, took place on 6 November, with the securities issued on 9 November. The figures were reported by Norvan Reports, drawing on the central bank's auction notice, which does not explain why acceptances exceeded the target.
Short end did the heavy lifting
The headline oversubscription hides an uneven picture. Of the GH¢4.11 billion accepted, GH¢2.93 billion went into 91-day bills, GH¢934.50 million into 182-day bills and just GH¢243.15 million into 364-day bills. The three-month paper alone made up just over 71 percent of the total taken.
Acceptance rates tell the same story. Roughly 97.5 percent of bids for the 91-day bill were accepted. For the 182-day bill the figure was 57.7 percent, and for the 364-day bill 62.6 percent. In cash terms, GH¢684.70 million of the GH¢1.62 billion offered for six-month bills was turned down, along with GH¢145.30 million of the GH¢388.45 million offered for one-year bills.
That selectivity means the result should not be read simply as strong appetite for government debt. Bids come in at different rates, and the central bank does not publish how individual bids were chosen.
Rates for the week
For securities covering 9–13 November, the weighted-average rate on the 91-day bill was 4.5109 percent on a discount basis and 4.5624 percent on an interest basis. The 182-day bill came in at 6.0154 and 6.2020 percent, while the 364-day bill recorded 8.6629 percent on a discount basis and 9.4846 percent on an interest basis.
Longer maturities therefore carried higher rates at this auction. The notice does not include comparable figures from earlier tenders, so it does not on its own show whether yields are trending up or down.
A big jump from the last sale
Tender 2032 was far larger than the auction before it. Tender 2031, held on 30 October, attracted GH¢2.55 billion in bids and sold GH¢1.92 billion. Bids this time were nearly double, and accepted amounts more than double. No reason for the jump is given.
The next sale, Tender 2033, carries a target of GH¢5.57 billion — GH¢2.03 billion, or about 57 percent, above the last target.
Who can buy
The primary auction is a wholesale market open only to Primary Dealers, licensed institutions required to act as market makers in government securities. Ordinary investors, including Ghanaians abroad, can buy and sell the bills on the secondary market through depository participants. The central bank's notice does not report how active that secondary trading currently is.
