Dolapo Ogundimu, MD of Access Bank Ghana
A recent notice published by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on the Annual Percentage Rates (APR) of commercial banks operating in the country and the average interest (AI) they paid on deposits as at 31st March 2017 showed that Access Bank Ghana offered the highest interest on deposits of the 31 banks surveyed.
While Access Bank offered 16.4 percent interest on monies deposited with them by all of its customers, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) offered the least interest of 3.4 percent to customers.
OmniBank was the next attractive bank offering 16 percent interest to customers on their deposits followed by Bank of Baroda with 15.5 percent.
The Royal Bank was next in line with 14.9 percent while Capital Bank and Stanbic Bank both offered 14.1 percent.
UBA offered 13.6 percent, followed by Bank of Africa with 13.4 percent, GN Bank with 13.2 percent and Sovereign Bank with 12.9 percent.
First Atlantic Bank offered 12.8 percent interest; uniBank gave 12.6 percent while UT Bank offered 12.0 percent interest.
Zenith Bank offered 11.7 percent; Sahel Sahara – 11.6 percent; NIB – 11.4 percent; HFC – 11.4 percent; First National Bank – 11.1 percent; UMB – 10.9 percent; Prudential Bank – 10.9 percent; Barclays – 10.4 percent; FBN Ghana – 10.3 percent; SG Bank – 9.7 percent; Ecobank – 9.2 percent; CAL Bank – 9.0 percent; and GCB Bank – 8.3 percent.
The others are GT Bank (7.4 percent), Fidelity Bank (6.9 percent), ADB (6.2 percent) and Energy Bank ((6.1 percent).
Interest on loans
UniBank charges the highest base rate at 41.0 percent according to the Central Bank’s latest data on Annual Percentage Rates (APR) of interest charged on loans and credit advances and the average interest (AI) paid on deposits. SCB also charges the lowest at 16.1 percent.
The industry average base rate as at March 31, 2017, according to the survey on the 31 commercial banks, was 26.7 percent, a marginal drop of 0.2 percent from the 26.9 percent recorded at the end of February.
At end of January this year, the base rate was 27.6 per cent.
By comparison therefore, the base rate had dropped by 0.9 percent as at March 31, 2017 since the beginning of the year.
Royal Bank emerged the second highest charging bank at 34.8 percent followed by Sovereign Bank which pegged its rate at 34.5 percent.
Capital Bank charged 33.3 percent as the fourth highest followed by Sahel Sahara with 31.0 percent and UMB at 30.8 percent.
NIB charged 30.5 percent; Energy Bank exacted 30.3 percent while UT Bank charged 30.1 percent. Omnibank took the tenth position, charging 30.0 percent, while UBA emerged 11th at 27.9 percent.
Access Bank was 12th at 27.8 percent, Bank of Africa emerged 13th at 27.2 percent while Prudential Bank charged 26.4 percent.
First National Bank charged 26.0 percent while Ecobank charged 25.9 percent and GT Bank 25.3 percent.
GCB Bank charged 24.2 percent while First Atlantic Bank demanded 23.8 percent.
Zenith Bank charged 23.6 percent as Fidelity Bank took 23.4 percent.
GN Bank was next with 22.2 percent while ADB took 20.9 percent.
SG Bank charged 20.0 percent, Barclays Bank charged 19.1 percent, Stanbic Bank charged 18.7 percent while Bank of Baroda came second least at 17.0 percent.
By Samuel Boadi