Ghana unlikely to license new banks in 2018 - BoG
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said that it may not license new banks in 2018, adding that the move is to help facilitate strict measures to implement the new capital requirement of 400 million cedis ($92million) next year. Speaking at an event in Accra, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, explained that the decision was to prevent entry of new lenders with a low capital requirement. According to him, the decision will afford the central bank time to carefully monitor financial institutions as most of them are expected to meet the new capital requirement deadline next year.
He said: “To rationalize the banking system to ensure efficiency, we are considering not licensing new banks, savings and loans, or microfinance institutions during the next year, as we implement the recapitalization plans of existing banks. “We should not allow the potentially insolvent banks to enter the industry,” adding : “We need to manage entry to ensure that, down the line, we do not then have to manage exit as we did this year”. Dr Addison was of the view that the move will equip the regulator to adequately evaluate the financial sector to identify specific areas that require special attention to achieve government’s transformational agenda.
“This will help us to ensure solvency and stability in the banking sector at the end of the reform process,” he said. Five Nigerian lenders-Zenith Bank, Access Bank, UBA, Guaranty Trust Bank and FirstBank- currently have operations in Ghana and there are indications that all of them are set to meet the new capital requirement.
