Ghana has completed the consolidation of it banking industry to strengthen the sector, the central bank of the country said.
The country now has ‘23 well-capitalized’ banks from the previous 34, the Bank of Ghana governor Ernest Addison said in a press briefing.
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The central bank initiated a reform process in September 2017 in an attempt to make the domestic banking system resilient and driven by a proper supervisory framework.
The process included a range of initiatives including mergers and withdrawing of licences of struggling lenders.
It also infused up to GHC12bn (2.49bn) in bonds to rescue some lenders from failures, Bloomberg quoted Addison as saying.
Ghana banking industry: Consolidation
During the consolidation process, Bank of Ghana awarded a GHC1.4bn bond to Consolidated Bank Ghana to assume the assets and liabilities of five failed lenders.
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By GlobalDataIn August last year, it created Consolidated Bank Ghana to transfer the assets of the failed uniBank Ghana, the Royal Bank, Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank and Construction Bank to the new lender.
Smaller banks Omni Bank and Sahel-Sahara Bank will merge their activities, as a part of the consolidation.
The local unit of India’s Bank of Baroda will transfer its assets to Standard Bank Group, while South Africa’s FirstRand will acquire GHL Bank.
Bank of Ghana has also downgraded GN Bank for failing to fulfil capital requirements.
In addition, five local banks received fresh capital from a special purpose vehicle Ghana Amalgamated Trust.
