Last year, the government avoided paying approximately N$6.4 billion in a bond redemption by allowing investors to switch their investment to long-term dated bonds.
The government revealed this in its 2025/26 Borrowing Plan.
During the last financial year, FY2025/26, the government conducted nine switch auctions targeting the GC26 bond.
At the commencement of the switching activity, the GC26 had an outstanding balance of approximately N$6.4 billion.
Through the nine switch auctions conducted during the year, the outstanding was reduced by 73.2 percent to N$1.7 billion by the end of February 2026.
The GC26 bond matured on 15 April 2026.
The residual outstanding amount of approximately N$1.7 billion was successfully redeemed.
The 2026/27 borrowing calendar continues to include switch auctions, allowing bondholders to exchange holdings of shorter-dated source bonds for longer-dated destination instruments monthly.
For FY2026/27, the switch auction programme transitions to the GC27 bond (8.00 percent coupon, maturing 15 January 2027).
The treasury has noted the switch programme is complementary to, and not a substitute for, the regular fixed-rate bond auction programme.
