Banks Grow In Profit- BoG

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has disclosed banks in the country recorded “considerable” growth in profits in the first half of this year compared to 2022.

“Banks’ half-year performance in 2023 shows considerable growth in profits, following significant losses posted in 2022 on account of the DDEP,” the Central bank said in a statement announcing the Monetary Policy rate for July 2023.

This means that banks are recovering from the impact of the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) which was announced in late 2022.

The BoG noted that if the trend continues banks will rebuild capital buffers quickly.

“If this trend continues, we expect banks to rebuild capital buffers quickly in addition to equity capital injections by shareholders to give a further boost to real sector growth and to build resilience in the banking sector.”

It added, “Early operationalisation of the Ghana Financial Stability Fund should also help provide additional recapitalisation support for eligible banks in line with the criteria and governance framework agreed with the IMF and the World Bank.”

In April this year, Bloomberg reported that Ghana’s move to restructure its local currency and overseas debt has resulted in the first loss on record for two of the West African nation’s top banks.

It said GCB Bank Plc, the country’s largest lender by assets, posted a 593.4 million cedis ($50.5 million) net loss for the year to end December, its first since 1993 when Bloomberg started maintaining data.

Meanwhile, it said, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Ltd., the biggest by market value, reported a loss of 297.8 million cedis.