GH¢2.4 million bad debt does not mean debt forgiveness - GAB

Chief Executive of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB) John Awuah has said writing off bad debts does not mean the debts have been forgiven.

He said that even though the term is used for accounting purposes, commercial banks are taking steps to recover debts.

Awuah stated that the debt has not been “totally written off”.

“When you read in the news and you see that banks have written off debts. It doesn’t mean that these debts have been forgiven. The term is rather used for accounting purposes,” he is quoted by myjoyonline.com.

The Bank of Ghana had earlier reported that GH¢2.4 million had been written off as bad debt for the first eight months of 2023.

According to its Banks Income Statement, commercial banks wrote off GH¢2.416 billion as bad debt in the first eight months of this year.

This indicates a 36.4% increase from what was recorded in 2022.

As of June 2023, the figure stood at GH¢1.713 billion.

The bad debts include loan losses, and depreciation, among others.

SSD/MA

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