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20.12.2011 Business & Finance

Government to issue a 15 year inftrastructure bond on the int'l capital market.

20.12.2011 LISTEN
By Emmanuel Agyei - JOY BUSINESS

Government has indicated plans of exploring the possibility of issuing long term infrastructure bonds from the international capital markets.

This will see government issue a 12 or 15 year bond in the coming years to finance long term infrastructure projects.This could be compared with the 750 million Eurobond issued by government in 2007.This is also aside plans to introduce a seven and ten year bond announced in the 2012 budget.

Deputy Finance Minister in an interview with JOY BUSINESS noted the initiative forms part of government's policy to diversify its sources of funding for infrastructure projects in the country.

“We should look at this in the context of Ghana becoming a middle income country which implies less access to grants and concessional finances. This also requires putting structures in place to explore other options for financing on long term basis" he noted.

In the 2012 budget, government indicated its plans to issue infrastructure bonds. This would involve a longer tenure of 12 to 15 years so that the capital projects in the budget would not be financed from short-term sources which often puts a lot of pressure on the country” he concluded.


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