Joe Jackson cautions govt against borrowing from T-bills market at high rates

The Director of Business Operations at Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson is cautioning both government and investors to be cognizant of the implication of high interest rates on the government’s treasury bills.

This he explains could flaw government gains in trying to bring the country’s debt to sustainable levels.

The government surpassed its auction target last week as Treasury bill sales recorded a 13.21 percent oversubscription of its target of GHS 2. 60 billion.

Meanwhile, interest rates continued to surge on the money market with the 364-day bill bidding at 31.97 percent.

Even though the interest rates are high and may be good for investors, this may cost the government more when they mature.

In an interview with, Joe Jackson expressed strong disapproval over this trajectory on the money market.

“How can we after taking such bold steps to reduce domestic debt to bring our debt levels to sustainable levels be now piling up short term debt- 91 Day Bill at 27% and 182 Day Bill at 28 % and 364 at 31%. This does not just make sense especially when the bids are oversubscribed,” he quizzed.

“Why can’t government reject the bids and ask investors to resubmit at lower bids like it did in March. We should be querying the government for borrowing at these high rates and query the investors for also lending at these higher rates because this will lead to the same problems that led us to a debt exchange programme,” he warned.

Currently, Ghana is unable to go to the international capital market to raise funds due to unfavorable credit ratings and high debt levels.