Government To Borrow Money From Investors

Government is set to benefit a whopping GH¢25.328 billion between July and December this year if its plans of borrowing from investors go through. This is according to Issuance Calendar for Government of Ghana Securities for the period stated above.

Government borrowed GH¢2.42 billion for July 2015 through its 91-day Treasury bills, GH¢684.65 million through its 182-day T-bills, GH¢21.33 million via its 1-year note and GH¢5.01 million through its 2-year note, all totaling GH¢3.13 billion.

The Calendar says for this month, it intends to borrow GH¢3.19 billion through the 91-day T-bills, GH¢1.25 billion through the 182-day T-bills, GH¢120 million through the 1-year note, GH¢300 million through the 2-year note and the recently announced GH¢500 million through its 5-year fixed rate bond, all totalling GH¢5.36 billion.

It also says for next month, Government expects to borrow GH¢2.4 billion through the 91-day T-bills, GH¢950 million through the 182-day T-bills, GH¢120 million through the 1-year note, GH¢300 million through its 2-year T-bills, as well as float 3-year fixed rate bond to mobilize GH¢400 million, all totaling GH¢4.17 billion.

In October, government is targeting to receive GH¢2.4 billion from its 91-day T-bills, GH¢800 million from 182-day T-bills, GH¢120 million from 1-year note, GH¢300 million from 2-year note and GH¢1 billion from 3-year fixed rate bond all summing up to GH¢4.62 billion.

When it comes to November, Government has planned to collect GH¢2.4 billion from investors through its 91-day T-bills, GH¢1 billion from the 182-day T-bills, GH¢180 million through its 1-year note and GH¢300 million through the 2-year note.

For December, an amount of GH¢4.16 billion is expected from investors made up of GH¢3 billion in 91-day T-bills, GH¢800 million from 182-day T-bills, GH¢60 million in 1-year note and GH¢300 million in 2-year note.

The Finance Minister, Mr. Seth Tekper made it clear in his mid-year budget review to Parliament on 21 July, 2015 that total revenue and grants for the 2015 fiscal year were revised downwards to GH¢32.4 billion by a reduction of GH¢1.9 billion (22.8 percent of GDP)

All these are targeted on account of lower oil revenue projections and is actually aside monies to be siphoned through its financial instruments indicated earlier.

The report says the Government needs an additional GH¢1.83 billion which is an equivalent of $524 million to pay back its external debt through its additional external borrowing.

It says the amount will cover the repayment of the 2017 Eurobond, with an outstanding amount of $530 million, which was partially repaid using the proceeds of the $1 billion Eurobond raised in international capital markets in an amortizing Eurobond in September 2014.

The remainder will be used to amortize and pay down short-term debt, with a further GH¢2.8 billion in external debt billed to mature this year and finance capital expenditure.

Source: YEN.com.gh