Fidelity Bank Ghana has called for a broader and deeper debt capital market to convert Ghana’s improving macroeconomic stability into affordable, long-term financing for productive sectors of the economy.
The Bank said developing a stronger debt market was critical to moving the country beyond economic stabilisation and recovery towards sustained investment, job creation and long-term economic transformation.
Mr Julian Opuni, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, made the call at a Debt Capital Markets Conference in Accra organised by the Bank to examine strategies for unlocking long-term financing for Ghana’s economic development.
The conference was held on the theme: “Lower Rates, Higher Opportunity: Unlocking Growth Through the Debt Capital Markets.”
Mr Opuni said the past three years had largely been focused on restoring macroeconomic stability, creating an opportunity to shift attention towards mobilising efficiently priced, long-term capital for productive investment.
“For capital-market participants, improving macroeconomic conditions are not an end in themselves,” he said.
“The practical question is how we convert macroeconomic stability into efficiently priced, long-term capital for productive investment.”
He said a growing economy could not rely on a single source of financing, noting that Fidelity Bank had supported debt capital-market transactions with an aggregate value exceeding GH¢30 billion.
“A deep debt capital market is built transaction by transaction, but it develops institution by institution,” Mr Opuni said.
The conference brought together officials from the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Finance, Ghana Stock Exchange/Ghana Fixed Income Market, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Pensions Regulatory Authority, institutional investors, issuers and other market participants.
It sought to broaden discussions on Ghana’s economic recovery to include the institutional and market reforms required to finance durable economic growth.
Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said the economy’s recovery remained strong, with real Gross Domestic Product growth reaching 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2026.
He said headline inflation had declined from a peak of 54.1 percent in December 2022 to 4.6 percent in July 2026, while gross international reserves stood at US$12.9 billion.
Dr Asiama described the reopening of the domestic bond market in March, following the expiry of the three-year restriction imposed under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, as the most significant development in the financial sector during the year.
“This is a milestone; a transition from crisis management to active, orderly debt management,” he said.
He, however, said the success of a deeper debt market should ultimately be measured by its ability to direct capital into productive economic activity.
Such investments, he said, should support infrastructure, manufacturing, housing and small and medium-sized enterprises.
“The true measure of a deeper market would be found not on an auction sheet, but in that power project that was completed, that factory that expanded, the housing development that was financed, and the SME that finds room on a bank’s balance sheet because the right capital reached the right use,” Dr Asiama said.
Need For Private-Sector Participation
Madam Abena Amoah, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, said the country’s debt capital market had evolved significantly over the past decade since the establishment of the Ghana Fixed Income Market in 2015.
She said capital markets were ultimately institutions of trust that depended on cooperation among regulators, financial institutions, investors and issuers.
Madam Amoah, however, noted that Ghana’s debt capital market remained heavily concentrated around sovereign issuance, with corporate securities accounting for only a small proportion of market activity.
“A market built predominantly around one issuer cannot achieve its full potential without broader private-sector participation,” she said.
She urged banks, including Fidelity Bank, to play a leading role in deepening the market by issuing debt securities and originating debt capital-market transactions for their corporate clients.
Protecting Macroeconomic Stability
Mr Kwame Pianim, veteran economist and investment consultant, cautioned that Ghana must protect the gains made in macroeconomic stability as it transitioned from stabilisation to growth.
He called for stronger institutions and disciplined mobilisation of domestic pension and insurance funds to finance productive investments.
Dr Theophilus Acheampong, Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, said ongoing reforms were aimed at institutionalising fiscal stability and preventing a return to macroeconomic instability.
He said measures including legislated fiscal rules, an independent fiscal council and a resourced sinking fund would strengthen fiscal discipline and provide a more predictable environment for long-term investment.
