President John Dramani Mahama has said that his government is working around the clock to reopen both domestic and international capital markets, focusing on revitalising the bond market.

Speaking at the Ghana CEO Summit at the Kempinski Hotel held on May 26, the President stressed that future borrowing will be linked to self-financing, commercially viable projects.

He said, "we are working to reopen Ghana’s bond market in collaboration with IMF, our development partners, Ghana Stock Exchange, and local banks."

Mr John Dramani Mahama also stated that his administration is preparing to revitalize Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to issue infrastructure and municipal bonds to finance development projects across various districts.

“We intend to empower MMDAs to issue infrastructure and municipal bonds secured against a portion of their district assembly's common fund to fund infrastructural projects such as roads, schools, water systems, and local industry in the districts,” he explained.

According to His Excellency, this initiative is part of eight key measures his administration is executing to enable Ghana to recover from its debt accumulation that has massively affected every aspect of the economy.

“The first is completing the IMF programme with discipline. We'll continue the discipline in government expenditure and borrowing and work to achieve all targets under the Extended Credit Facility programme with the IMF,” he said.

“We expect to conclude the fourth review of the IMF programme in June 2025, with a target to exit at the end of the programme in 2026. Thereafter, we'll participate in Article IV consultations and adopt the policy support instrument framework, signalling Ghana's return to responsible non-borrowing engagement with the fund,” he added.

Highlighting the importance of linking borrowing to viable projects, he explained, “future borrowing will be linked to self-financing commercially viable projects, particularly by MDAs, MMDAs, and SOEs, ensuring value for money and sustainable repayment.”

On public investment management, he pointed out that, “The Auditor-General is completing an audit of areas and commitments, government commitments, and we expect to receive his report by the end of May. We'll then commence to clear legitimate areas transparently and enforce commitment controls through GIFMIS and IPSAS-based accounting systems.”

He concluded by stressing, “New projects will be prioritised based on need, funding availability, and alignment with our national interest.”

Reacting to the development, an economist and lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof Patrick Assuming says the cedi is doing well, so it looks attractive to go and borrow but that is not what it should be.

"We still have fundamental challenges in our economy that we have to address. It appears that the recent non-performance of the cedi seem to have taken too much attention, we seem to forget that the economy still has real problems."

"When you have the kind of challenges we have now, your focus should be on fixing the challenges and not trying to get access to the international capital market. "It is fraught with a lot of challenges and dangers. We've already seen it. So for me, that should not be our priority at all," he told the media during an interview on May 27, 2025.