Julian Opuni
Fidelity Bank Ghana has convened a landmark Debt Capital Markets Conference to explore how Ghana can convert its hard-won macroeconomic stability into efficiently priced, long-term capital for productive investment.
The conference, held under the theme, “Lower Rates, Higher Opportunity: Unlocking Growth Through the Debt Capital Markets,” brought together 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 market leaders.
It marked a shift in the national conversation from strengthening economic fundamentals to building foundations for durable growth in the debt capital markets.
Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, Julian Opuni, said improving conditions now present a genuine opportunity after three years focused on stabilisation.
“For capital-market participants, improving macroeconomic conditions are not an end in themselves. The practical question is how we convert macroeconomic stability into efficiently priced, long-term capital for productive investment,” Mr. Opuni said.
He argued that a growing economy cannot rely on a single funding channel and disclosed that Fidelity Bank has 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.
Delivering the keynote, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama, said real GDP growth reached 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2026, headline inflation had fallen from a peak of 54.1 percent in December 2022 to 4.6 percent in July 2026, and gross international reserves stood at US$12.9 billion.
He described the reopening of the domestic bond market in March after the expiry of the three-year restriction imposed under the Debt Exchange as the most significant development of the year.
“This is a milestone, a transition from crisis management to active, orderly debt management,” Dr. Asiama said.
He said the true measure of a deeper market would be seen 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.
“Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Abena Amoah, said markets are ultimately institutions of trust built through cooperation, reflecting on the decade-long journey since the founding of the Ghana Fixed Income Market in 2015.
She noted that Ghana’s debt capital market remains heavily concentrated around sovereign issuance, with corporate securities representing only a small fraction of activity.
“A market built predominantly around one issuer cannot achieve its full potential without broader private-sector participation,” she said, calling on banks like Fidelity Bank to lead as issuers and as originators for their corporate clients.
Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Theophilus Acheampong, assured that recent reforms, including legislated fiscal rules, an independent fiscal council and a resourced sinking fund, were designed to institutionalise stability and prevent a relapse.