Between Friday, 4 and 7 March, 2016, government borrowed over GH¢2.080 billion from both local and foreign investors through the sale of its securities to take care of government responsibilities.
This comprised 91-day T-bills component of GH¢723.74 million, 182-day T-bills bit of GH¢560.38 million, 1-year note component of GH¢19.53 million and a 5-year bond of GH¢776.44 million according to results of Tender 1475 held on 4th March, 2016 for government of Ghana Securities and issued yesterday.
These have weighted average interest rates of between 22.50 percent and 24.75 percent.
A notice to banks from the Central Bank dated March 4, 2016 and signed by Caroline Otoo, Secretary, said Tender 1474 issued on 26th February, 2016 from the sale of 91-day T-bills and 182-day T-bills realized over GH¢1.019 billion even though GH¢1.020 billion was targeted.
For Tender 1476, which is targeting an amount of GH¢764 million from both 91- and 182-day T-bills, and GH¢300 million from a 2-year note, the Central Bank said detailed bids for all securities must be electronically delivered to the Central Securities Depository Auction Module not later than 1.00pm on Friday, 11th March, 2016.
Government has still not been able to disclose in actual terms how much it has contracted by way of loans to finance its operations between October 2015 and now.
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President John Mahama, in his recent state of the nation address, did not comment on the issue.
The Central Bank was also expected to disclose that at a press conference in January, this year following its monetary policy committee meeting but it also had to dodge that and direct the media to expect the Ministry of Finance to do that.
However, the Ministry has failed to provide the details of where the country stands now in terms of its total national debt.
Between October 2 and November 13, last year, Government borrowed over GH¢8.6 billion from both local and foreign investors and going by computations from tenders posted on the BoG’s website on government borrowings, the figure is said to have crossed GH¢110 billion.
The opposition NPP recently put the total national debt at GH¢99 billion.
Even with that, the country has already crossed the IMF’s threshold of a debt-to-GDP ratio of 70 percent.
Source: Daily Guide/Samuel Boadi
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