Finance Minister Seth Terkper is optimistic government’s decision to issue its first local dollar denominated bond in the country will yield good results.
According to him, there are enough US dollars in the country, to help government meet its target of raising over 50 million dollars locally.
Speaking to Citi Business News after a local road show to encourage investors to participate in the bond, Mr. Terkper explained that government has dollar commitments to undertake, as well as, fulfill some capital expenditures in dollars, hence the need to meet the target.
“We wanted to interact with them so the goal is that the Ministry of Finance wants to issue dollar bonds to meet some of its dollar commitments because we have dollar commitments in the budget,” he noted. He pointed out that most of Ghana’s debt servicing is in dollars, while some capital expenditures are also in dollars.
“We are usually dependent on the Bank of Ghana to provide the dollars, we are working with the Bank of Ghana to raise the bonds,” he stressed.
Outlining some target areas government intends to get its subscription Mr. Terkper pointed out that dollar can be available in business retentions, the recently signed Cocoa Syndicated loans, and dollar wage accounts in the country.
“Dollar can be available through retention, there are many businesses that do retention, their expenditures are in cedis, so they may want to surrender the dollars.
Dollar is also available during peak seasons, like the cocoa season,” he said. Govt targets 25.3bn by close of year Government announced plans to issue an estimated 25.3 billion cedis between August and December this year. Of the amount, 23.8 billion cedis is expected to be used to rollover forecast maturities with the remaining amount of 1.4 billion cedis being fresh issuance to meet government’s financing requirements. A statement from the Bank of Ghana said, the calendar is “In accordance with the Government’s MTDS, the Bank of Ghana, and the Ministry of Finance”.
It also indicated that government would consider accepting a reasonable amount above the target to build buffers which would be used to reduce borrowing. Government explained at the time that it aims at continuing the objective of lengthening its debt maturity profile by reducing short-term borrowing, while issuing the 91 and the 182-day bonds weekly.
Payment plans Per the new calendar, 60 million cedis will be issued every 2 weeks for the 1-Year Note, through the primary auction. Settlement will occur on the first and third Mondays of each month.
Also, the 2-Year Note will be issued monthly through the primary auction with settlement occurring on the second Monday of each month. While the 3, 5 and 10-Year issues will be done through the book-building method, with settlement on the last Monday of each month.
An amount of GH¢400 million for the 5-Year Bond will be raised this month through reopening of the existing 5-year Bond at a coupon rate of 24.75% with maturity at 19th July 2021, and settlement on 29th August, 2016.
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