Ray Sowah
The Managing Director of Ghana Commercial Bank, Ray Sowah, has praised the Central Bank’s reforms in the financial sector, saying that there is more trust in the banking sector after the exercise.
He was addressing the 2nd Ghana UK Investment and Promotion Summit in London on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.
Mr. Sowah disclosed that available data shows that even with fewer banks total deposits had increased than it was prior to the financial shakeup by the Bank of Ghana.
“At the start of the reforms in April 2017, total assets stood at 8.9 billion Ghana cedis for a sector that had 30 banks. Two years after the reforms, the total assets had increased to 12.1 billion as at the end of October 2019 even with 23 banks. In the same direction total deposits had improved from 55.7 billion Ghana Cedis to 78.9 billion Ghana Cedis over the same period.
Reflecting a stronger deposit base owning to more trust and confidence in the financial sector,” he said.
The GCB boss also indicated that the reforms had helped to reposition the financial sector to support Ghana’s transformational agenda.
“The just ended recapitalization exercise has positioned the banking sector as better capitalized, stronger and resilient,” he added.
The two day summit has brought together government officials, investors, businesses and organizations from Ghana and across the United Kingdom.
The Bank of Ghana in August 2017 commenced the banking sector reforms after it emerged that the financial sector was under considerable state of distress, with banks that were not meeting the capital adequacy requirement while others had eroded capital with high non-performing loans.