Lending Rates To Go Down Further

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has reiterated its commitment to reducing lending rates for commercial banks to reduce the cost of doing business in the country.

First Deputy Governor of the BoG, Dr Maxwell Opoku Afari, said the decision would be implemented by gauging the prevailing conditions in order to accelerate economic growth.

The assurance by the BoG comes on the back of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which will culminate in an announcement of the new policy rate on Monday, 27 November 2017.

Speaking at the SME CEOs’ Summit, the First Deputy Governor said: “The Bank of Ghana’s Monetary Policy Committee has lowered the policy rate by 450 basis points to 21 percent, and this week starting from Tuesday, it is meeting again to assess recent developments.

“After the cumulative 450 basis points lowering, we have seen lending rates come down by some 150 basis points. This is not as much as we expected and more will be done to bring lending rates down.”

Special Incentive

In a related development, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said it will provide special incentives to banks that are giving credit facilities to businesses who are venturing into environmentally friendly projects.

Some of the incentives include a reduction in the cost of lending rates for the banks from the Central Bank.

The BoG is expected to assess the various environmentally friendly initiatives of the banks every six months, and will reward those that pass the assessment as part of the packages.

Dr Johnson Assiama, Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said the Central Bank is working towards promoting sustainable banking practices among the commercial banks in the country.

“The whole basis of their lending activities, so more or less it’s not just about lending to the mining sectors it is about them looking at all the sectors, so if they are lending to agriculture, there has to be environmental considerations and so on.”

“We are also working on some specialized lending schemes which will be managed by the Central Bank, but then commercial banks can access this and these can be administered for businesses all in an attempt to put emphasis and in an attempt to provide for environmental risks.”