Fix the long-term domestic market – Prof Gatsi to Govt

Economist and Dean of the University of Cape Coast(UCC) Business School, Professor John Gatsi has called on the government to take steps to urgently address and repair the long-term domestic debt market to stabilise the country’s financial landscape.

Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV, Prof. Gatsi emphasised the need for the government to shift its focus from short-term borrowing to issuing long-term instruments to restore balance and investor confidence in the debt market.

“Critically, T-Bill instruments are just liability management. So there is a turnover within a short period of time. We borrow in the long term domestic market to do stuff. Now we are out of the external market, we are out of the long-term domestic market.

“That is why our focus is supposed to be to repair the domestic debt market so that we can begin to be issuing a longer term instrument. That should be the focus of the president and his finance minister.

“We cannot continue to have a monopolised debt market where only Treasury bill instruments are available to investors, and he doesn’t have a choice, and he is supposed to allocate his portfolio mainly to a short-term instrument. So, we need to quickly repair the long-term domestic market so that we can begin to issue long-term instruments for investors to allocate their resources in between short-term and long-term. That will bring about some sanity into the debt market,” he stated.