Bad loans drop - BoG report

The latest Summary of Economic and Financial Data of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) indicates that non-performing loans in the Ghana banking industry reported as loss or bad debt, hit 10.5 percent in October.

This is, however, a drop compared to that of September and August 2017 which were 10.7 and 11.3 percent respectively.

According to the report, non-performing loans still remained high at 21.6 percent in October 2017, as against 22.2 percent in September 2017.

The Banking Sector Report for July 2017 indicated there was a general net tightening of credit conditions on loans to small and medium enterprises and large enterprises, as well as short-term enterprise loans. The survey, however, reported a net ease in credit stance on long-term enterprise loans for the June 2017 survey round.

The Summary of Economic and Financial Data added that that total deposits shot up from GH¢55.7 billion in July 2017 to GH¢55.8 billion in October 2017.

Total assets of the banking industry also stood at GH¢88.9 billion, a decline from the GH¢89.1 billion realized in July 2017.

Liquidity was relatively high at 25.5 percent though lower than the 28.7 percent in July 2017.

Growth of loans and advances, however, dropped in October 2017 though it grew by 12.0 percent compared with 17.9 percent in July 2017. Total loans and advances was, however, higher at GH¢38.4 billion.

The banking sector’s capital adequacy ratio dropped increased to 15.0 percent in October, from 14.5 percent in July 2017.

Meanwhile, money outside banks reduced from a year high of 22.3 percent in March 2017 to 9.6percent in October 2017, the lowest so far. This indicates more money have found their way into the banking or financial sector, a sign of goodness for the Ghanaian economy.

At the same time, demand deposits largely current account declined to 30.3 percent, from the highest of 40.7 percent in July 2017.

From July 2017 to September 2017, the rates of growth of demand deposits were 40.7 percent, 24.0 percent and 19.7 percent respectively.

Growth of Savings and Time deposits has also consistently reduced from 40.5 percent in July 2017 to 37.7 percent in October 2017.