Is Africa the next frontier for capital markets? Those who believe so will have been cheered by the success of Ghana’s debut Eurobond issue in late September. Where Ghana has led before, the rest of sub-Saharan Africa has tended to follow.
The republic was the first African colony to gain its independence (1957) and, from the 1980s onwards, it pushed through some of the continent’s earliest economic reforms. Ghana’s football team was the first from Africa to win an Olympic medal (1992), a fact that may not have carried much weight with international investors. However, its issue of the first Eurobond from sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) will have made a lasting impression on them.
