Shareholders’ funds in the banking industry contracted by 4.2% to ¢25.4 billion in October 2023, the Bank of Ghana has revealed. This is compared to a growth of 11.9% in October 2022. According to the Bank of Ghana, this reflects losses from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme which impacted the reserves of banks. The decline in shareholders’ funds, it added, is also...
Investments constituted the largest component of the total assets of banks as of October 2023. According to the Bank of Ghana’s November 2023 Monetary Policy Report, it was up by 22.0% year-on-year to ¢103.7 billion in October 2023, compared to 1.9% in October 2022. However, banks’ holdings of long-term investments (securities) contracted by 25.5% in October 2023 from 20.9% growth in...
Banks’ half-year performance in 2023 shows considerable growth in profits, following significant losses posted in 2022 on account of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), Governor of the Bank of Ghana Dr Ernest Addion has said. Dr Addison stated that If this trend continues, the country will expect banks to rebuild capital buffers quickly in addition to equity capital injections...
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana has increased its Policy Rate by 50 basis points to 30%. This increment is targeted at stemming the rising inflation. Since November 2021, the Central Bank’s key lending rate has gone up by 15.5%. Despite the increase in the policy rate, lending rates are not expected to go up. This is because the...
Average lending rate fell to 31.5% in June 2023, from a high of 35.8% in January 2023. This is equivalent to an average of 2.625% per month on loans charged by the banks. According to data from the Bank of Ghana, the average lending rate began easing in April 2023, as it dropped to 31.6%. This is surprising because inflation remains high...
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, has confirmed that the majority of banks in the country have complied with the directive to purchase ‘bulletproof’ bullion vans for transporting cash. This is coming after the Central Bank directed all banks to acquire ‘bulletproof’ bullion vehicles to convey cash from one branch to another by July 1,...
The Ghana cedi is expected to remain stable this week against the US dollar and the other major foreign currencies due to improving foreign exchange liquidity on the market. Last week, the local currency endured demand pressures but remained stable. It ended the week with a 0.30% week-on-week gain against the US dollar, but depreciated 0.33% and 0.78% to the pound...
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, has expressed concern about the practice where some individuals hoard huge amounts of foreign currencies outside of the banking system. Responding to a question at the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee press conference in Accra about the reported hoarding of one million dollars and 300,000 euros by former Water Resources...
Total Mobile Money Transactions reached a record ¢859 billion in the first six months of 2023, data from the Bank of Ghana has revealed. This is compared with ¢480 billion during the same period in 2022. If the trend continues, the total mobile money transactions will hit one trillion cedis by the end of July 2023. According to the January 2022 Summary...
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) is in discussions with the government to assess the viability of a state-owned bank; the National Investment Bank (NIB). The discussions, which are expected to be concluded by next year, would determine the fate of NIB. Under the IMF programme, the BoG has committed to completing the remaining tasks from the financial sector cleanup, and these...
