BoG report: Credit cards shoot up by 57%

The number of credit cards issued in 2018 increased by 57.2 per cent to 23,102, the central bank, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed.

Debit cards issuance, on the other hand, recorded a downward trend, the central bank added.

“The number of credit cards issued in 2018 also increased by 57.2 per cent to 23,102 while debit cards declined by 20.1 per cent to 4,754,514. Prepaid cards registered a 151.8 per cent increase to 216,592 in 2018,” the BoG said in the Payment Systems Oversight Annual Report, 2018.

According to the BoG, the number of registered internet banking customers also reduced.

The number fell by 12.9 per cent from 936,965 in 2017 to 815,904 in 2018.

The “number of registered internet banking customers declined by 12.9 per cent from 936,965 in 2017 to 815,904 in 2018. Similarly, the value of Internet Banking transactions decreased to GH¢ 6.27 billion in 2018 from GH¢ 9.74 billion in 2017”.

“Over the period, however, the number of registered mobile banking customers increased to 3,891,269 in 2018 from 2,110,984 in 2017. Similarly, the value of transactions increased to GH¢ 5.66 billion in 2018 from GH¢ 1.50 billion in 2017,” the report said.