Dr Ernest Addison – Governor of BoG
At least fifteen (15) banks are yet to announce their position on meeting the new minimum capital requirement with four months to the deadline.
Citi Business News’ analysis have shown that six (6) banks have reached the target with seven (7) others undertaking various measures to recapitalize.
The six banks include; the Consolidated bank, Republic bank, Access bank, Zenith Bank, Barclays Bank as well as GCB Bank.
These banks have either resorted to raising extra capital from the stock market, injecting fresh capital from existing shareholders or adding their income surplus to their stated capital.
The commercial banks have been racing against time to meet the new minimum capital levels as the Bank of Ghana insists it will not yield to any extension.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Addison at the recent media engagement outlined the progress of banks thus far.
“Per the data available to us, we have six banks that have met, four banks that are most likely to meet and another five banks that are likely to meet. So straight away you could say that at the very least we could have fifteen banks by the end of the year,” he stated.
Listed banks progress on stock market
It is unclear whether all listed banks that announced of moving their income surplus to shore up their stated capital, have completed the process yet.
As information available to Citi Business News indicates that they need to complete the process with an official certification with the Registrar General’s Department.
These banks include; Ecobank, Cal bank as well as Standard Chartered bank.
The banks have announced of transferring 190 million cedis, 250 million cedis and 302 million cedis respectively, from their income surplus to their stated capital.
Mergers to the rescue
Meanwhile, Omnibank and Sahel Sahara bank are in a merger process which should see them hitting the mark, barring any last minute change.
Already, an earlier merger among Premium Bank, GN Bank and Sahel Sahara bank has been botched and the CEO of Groupe Nduom believes his bank should seek investments to meet the new capital level.
Remaining banks to announce preparedness soon?
The remaining sixteen banks may have either undertaken various plans to meeting the requirement.
Until the timeline elapses, industry analysts will continue to watches the space keenly.
-Citifmonline