News Guide Africa

Tag: Ghana Bnaks

  • BoG Dollar Sales: supply fall short of about 80%

    BoG Dollar Sales: supply fall short of about 80%

    Adnan Adams Mohammed

    The Bank of Ghana (BoG) U.S dollar auctioning report indicates that, there is supply shortage of about US$82 million out of total demand of US$107 million as at last week, July 26, 2022.  

    Sales of the US dollar stood at US$25 million. This translate into a percentage shortfall in supply of about 80 percent.

    This indicates why the cedi has come under severe pressure in recent days, losing ground against the largest trading currency. The demand for the U.S currency has been very high.

    US$51.25 million of the 7-day tenor was the highest bid by the dealers, followed by US$28.75 million for the 15-day tenor.

    The 30-day tenor received bids worth US$19.75 million, whilst the 45-day tenor received bids of US$4 million.

    The rates for the 7-day tenor were priced within the range of ¢8.09 and ¢8.20. That of the 15-day were within the range of ¢8.14 and ¢8.25.

    Overall, 150 bids were submitted by the dealers, but 34 of the bids were accepted.

  • Banks write-off ¢768.29m as bad debt

    Banks write-off ¢768.29m as bad debt

    Banks in Ghana has written off a little above ¢768.29 million as bad debt in the first four months of 2022, about 5.5% increase over the same period last year.

    According to the latest Monetary Policy report by the Bank of Ghana, the bad debt is made up of loan losses, depreciation, among others.

    Despite the increase in the provision of the bad debt, the banking industry’s asset quality improved year-on-year, evidenced by the decline in the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) ratio from 15.5% in April 2021 to 14.3% in April 2022.

    The decline in the NPLs ratio was on the back of a higher growth in the stock of loans, from 7.0% to 25.8% during the review period.

    When adjusted for the fully provisioned loan loss category, the industry’s adjusted NPL ratio also declined sharply from 6.5% to 4.2%.

    On the other hand, the stock of NPLs, increased to ¢8.6 billion in April 2022, from ¢7.4 billion in April 2021, representing a growth of 15.8%.

    The increase in the NPL stock indicates that some asset quality risks still remain within the banking sector.

    Meanwhile, the extension of the loan repayment moratoria deadline by the Bank of Ghana to December 31st, 2022 is expected to provide relief to customers adversely impacted by the pandemic and help moderate the growth in non-performing loans within the banking sector.

    In terms of sectorial performance, all but three sectors recorded improvements in their NPL ratios during the period under review.

    These are electricity, water and gas (from 22.6% to 12.2%); manufacturing (from 18.3% to 10.9%); mining and quarrying (from 10.7 % to 6.5%); commerce and finance (from 21.9% to 18.9%) and the services sectors (from 9.1% to 8.7%).

    On the other hand, the sectors that recorded increases in their NPL ratio were construction (from 24.0% to 32.1%); transportation, storage and communication (from 10.4% to 12.4%) and the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors (from 23.7% to 25.0%).

    The sector with the lowest NPL ratio was the mining and quarrying sector while the construction sector had the largest proportion of its loans impaired.