The central bank’s open market operations (OMO) stock reached GH¢93.56billion in 2025 – nearly tripling within a year – on account of aggressive sterilisation to anchor inflation and stabilise the currency.
While this policy stance has delivered measurable results, including a sharp disinflation trend and improved external balances, it has also created a structural cost burden that is expected to weigh on the Bank’s finances through 2026 and 2027.
At the issue’s core is the scale of liquidity mop-up required to sustain recent macroeconomic gains.
The rise in OMO liabilities is closely tied to legacy effects of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), which impaired the Bank’s balance sheet through a GH¢35.67billion haircut on government securities.
Three years after the restructuring, parliamentary approval for that haircut remains pending – leaving a significant governance and legal overhang which is yet to be resolved.
Hence, the central bank’s 2025 financial and operational outcomes present strong macroeconomic stabilisation on one hand and mounting quasi-fiscal costs of monetary operations on the other.
The disinflation gains were not without cost. The same liquidity management operations that helped compress inflation have expanded the central bank’s interest-bearing liabilities, increased its operating expenses and raised questions about the current framework’s sustainability.
Open market operations have become the primary instrument for managing excess liquidity. By issuing short-term securities, the central bank absorbs surplus funds from the banking system – aligning market rates with its policy stance.
However, this approach carries a direct financial cost because unlike reserve requirements – which are non-interest-bearing – OMO instruments require the Bank to pay interest, creating a recurring expense that grows with the stock of sterilisation.
With OMO liabilities now at GH¢93.56billion, the scale of these costs is no longer marginal. The reliance on OMO and its associated cost burden remain persistent issues that will not be offset by one-off revenues in future periods.
This raises important questions about sustainability of the current policy mix.
According to some market observers, the central issue is not whether liquidity should be sterilised but how it should be managed efficiently. The current framework, heavily reliant on OMO, has proven effective in achieving price stability – but at a growing financial cost.
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