Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced that customers who repeatedly issue dud cheques will be barred from accessing new credit from banks and financial institutions for one year.
In a notice issued on Monday, September 7, 2026, the BoG said customers who issued dud cheques three times would be classified as repeat offenders and prohibited from issuing cheques for at least three years.
It said for a first-time offence, banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) were required to impose a levy of 10 percent of the face value of the dud cheque and issue a warning to the customer outlining the consequences of repeating the offence.
The measure, it said, was intended to help restore confidence in cheques as a means of payment.
The central bank stated that the penalty would increase to 15 percent of the cheque’s face value if a customer issued a second dud cheque within one year of the first offence.
It added that for a third offence within one year, customers who issued dud cheques would be required to pay a penalty of 20 percent of the cheque’s face value.
According to the BoG, it would also notify all banks and SDIs when a customer was banned from accessing new credit.
The central bank urged banks and SDIs to report offenders to the Credit Reference Bureau and the BoG, while continuing to submit information on customers who issued dud cheques to the Credit Reference Bureau in line with Section 25(C) of the Credit Reporting Act, 2007 (Act 726).
The BoG added that institutions must submit a nil return in months when no dud cheques were recorded.
They are also required to submit monthly returns on dud cheques to the BoG by the 10th day of the following month.
The BoG defines a dud cheque as “a cheque drawn on an account by a customer for which there are insufficient funds to pay the amount specified on the cheque.”
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah