Investor interest and confidence in government treasuries remain high as the treasury bill auction exceeds the target by over 60%.

In auction results posted by the Bank of Ghana, the government accepted GH¢12.8 billion in bids at the latest auction, above its GH¢9.8 billion target, although investors submitted bids worth GH¢15.9 billion.

The reports also show that the majority of investors preferred the 364-day (one-year) treasury bill, for which they offered about GH¢7.4 billion, making up nearly half of all the money investors offered.

Out of this amount, the government accepted just over GH¢5.0 billion.

Also, for the 182-day (six-month) treasury bill, investors offered about GH¢4.29 billion, and the government accepted almost all of it, around GH¢4.28 billion.

For the 91-day (three-month) bill, investors offered about GH¢4.1 billion, of which the government accepted about GH¢3.4 billion.

On the other hand, interest rates continued to rise at the longer end of the yield curve.

The yield on the 91-day bill remained at 11.19%.

That of the 182-day bill, however, went up to 12.66% from 12.64% the previous week.

Additionally, the yield on the 364-day bill increased by eight basis points to 13.06%.

Meanwhile, the iversubscription has been a trend in the last few months.Government saw another significant oversubscription in its primary T-bill auction, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced, following its August 1 auction last year.

This comes after demand surged 42.07 percent above the target.

Reports from the Bank of Ghana indicated that the latest figures showed the government had planned to raise GHS 3.86 billion through Treasury bills, but it, however, accepted a total of GHS 5.48 billion. This was a result of investor interest exceeding expectations.

Specifically, GHS 4.32 billion was taken from GHS 4.86 billion in bids for the 91-day bill, GHS 823 million from GHS 1.15 billion for the 182-day bill, and GHS 343 million out of GHS 774 million for the 364-day bill.

Experts say the high demand happened because big investors, like banks and companies, wanted to buy Treasury bills then, while the interest rates were still high. They believe that interest rates and inflation might go down soon, so they want to secure the good returns before that happens.

Interest rates on short-term government securities are still going down. The interest on the 91-day bill fell to 10.29%, which is 0.54% lower than before. The 182-day bill dropped from 13.22% to 12.35%, and the 364-day bill also went down by 1.06% to 13.24%.

According to reports, the Ghanaian government announced plans to borrow GHS 8.58 billion through treasury bills that month. This figure was cited in a Bank of Ghana issuance calendar for August 2025, which outlined the government’s short-term borrowing strategy.

This oversubscription adds to the recent oversubscription spree the government has recorded in the last three months consecutively.

T-bill auction on Friday, July 25, recorded a massive 160% oversubscription.

How was t-bill auction earlier in 2025?

In early 2025, when the government assumed office, T-bill auctions were struggling, with eight consecutive weeks of undersubscription. Among some of the reasons for the undersubscription were investor liquidity constraints, where financial institutions and investors faced cash flow challenges, diminishing their interest in investing in government securities.

Another reason for the undersubscription was other attractive competing investment options, such as the Bank of Ghana’s OMO bills, which were offering higher interest in comparison to T-bills and influencing institutions’ and the public’s preferences. The Bank of Ghana’s OMO bills were short-term debt instruments used in Open Market Operations (OMO), a key tool for managing money supply and interest rates in the economy.

Market uncertainty was another undersubscription challenge. Due to the previous government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and other concerns about inflation and fiscal discipline, investors treaded cautiously, closely monitoring fiscal decisions by the new government.

Tight monetary conditions, with less money circulating in the system, also caused demand for short-term debt instruments to drop, accounting for the undersubscription.

In April, the government failed to meet its Treasury bill target for the third week in a row. It fell short by GH¢2.69 billion after rejecting GH¢2.37 billion worth of bids, likely because the interest rates offered by investors did not meet the government’s expectations.

According to Bank of Ghana data, the government aimed to raise GH¢4.39 billion through short-term borrowing but received only GH¢1.69 billion in bids. This represented a shortfall of 61.46%.

For the 91-day bill, the government received GH¢3.38 billion in bids but accepted only GH¢1.45 billion. For the 182-day bill, GH¢501.17 million was tendered, but only GH¢81.09 million was accepted.

The 364-day bill saw GH¢176.26 million in bids, with GH¢161.26 million accepted.