Ghana plans to sell its first 10-year local currency bond next month, issuing 200 million cedis ($50.42 million) of debt as part of an effort to borrow over longer periods at lower interest rates, Finance Minister Seth Terkper said on Tuesday.
Terkper said the new bond, the longest maturity ever for cedi-denominated debt, is open to offshore investors. The bonds will target capital expenditure, he said, and the government would no longer use short-term debt for infrastructure projects.
"It's a deliberate policy to open the long end (of debt maturities) in order to ease pressure on our capital expenditure," Terkper told Reuters.
Ghana signed a three-year assistance programme with the International Monetary Fund in April 2015 to restore fiscal balance to an economy dogged by deficits, public debt and high borrowing costs.