Ghana's central bank five-year bond oversubscribed

Accra, June 8 (IANS) The five-year bond issued by Ghana's central bank Thursday was oversubscribed by 141 percent.

The Bank of Ghana went to the market again seeking 200 million Ghana cedis, or $105.26 million, but ended up receiving subscriptions of 481.5 million cedis or $253.42 million, reported Xinhua.

The bank had served notice of the bond at the end of last month on its website, inviting bids for the issue of the instrument on behalf of the government of Ghana through the auction process.

"Each bond shall have a face value of one cedi, minimum bid of 500,000 cedis, and multiples of 10,000 cedis thereafter," the bank last month announced.

The two-year bond was being sought to pay previous debts of government that were maturing.

A three-year 300 million-Ghana cedi ($159 million) Bank of Ghana bond put out on the market last month ended up being heavily oversubscribed by more than 100 percent.

Earlier in February, the central bank had to refund over 400 million cedis to subscribers in another oversubscription of its three-year 200 million-cedi bond it issued that month.