Accra, Sept. 6, GNA – Fidelity Bank Ghana has called for a broader and deeper financing architecture to convert Ghana’s improving macroeconomic stability into long-term capital for productive investment.
The call was made at a Debt Capital Markets Conference convened by the Bank to examine how the country could transition from economic recovery and stabilisation to sustainable, long-term growth.
Speaking at the conference, Mr Julian Opuni, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, said the past three years had largely focused on economic stabilisation, making it necessary to improve the conditions for long-term investment.
He said improving macroeconomic conditions should not be an end in itself, but should create opportunities to mobilise efficiently priced, long-term capital for productive sectors of the economy.
“For capital-market participants, improving macroeconomic conditions are not an end in themselves,” he stated.
“The practical question is how we convert macroeconomic stability into efficiently priced, long-term capital for productive investment.”
Mr Opuni said a growing economy could not depend on a single funding channel, 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,” he said.
The conference, held under the theme: “Lower Rates, Higher Opportunity: Unlocking Growth Through the Debt Capital Markets”, brought together officials of 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 leaders.
It sought to broaden the national conversation from strengthening economic fundamentals to developing the institutional and market foundations needed to finance durable economic growth.
Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said Ghana’s economic recovery remained strong, with real Gross Domestic Product growth reaching 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2026.
He said headline inflation had fallen from a peak of 54.1 per cent in December 2022 to 4.6 per cent 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.”
The true measure of a deeper debt market would be its ability to channel capital into productive economic activity, including infrastructure, manufacturing, housing and small and medium-sized enterprises, he stated.
“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,” he said.
Madam Abena Amoah, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, reflected on the market’s decade-long journey since the establishment of the Ghana Fixed Income Market in 2015, saying capital markets were ultimately institutions of trust built through cooperation.
She 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.
Madam Amoah, therefore, urged banks such as Fidelity Bank to take a leading role in deepening the market, both as issuers and as originators of debt capital-market transactions for their corporate clients.
Mr Kwame Pianim, a veteran economist and investment consultant, cautioned that macroeconomic stability must be protected as the country transitioned from stabilisation to growth.
He called for stronger institutions and disciplined mobilisation of domestic pension and insurance funds to finance productive investment.
Dr Theophilus Acheampong, Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, said reforms including legislated fiscal rules, an independent fiscal council and a resourced sinking fund were intended to institutionalise fiscal stability and prevent a relapse into macroeconomic instability.
GNA
Edited by Beatrice Asamani Savage