Ghana Banking Survey

Overview 

In the third quarter of the year 2022, Ghana’s debt stock was assessed as having reached unsustainable levels. The world economy was just recovering from the COVID-19 shock, when Russia attacked Ukraine. The resultant shock to the supply chains of major commodities sent world prices on an inflationary trajectory.

Ghana’s economy was not spared. A strong US Dollar and increasing US interest rates made it increasingly difficult for the government to service its debt. The debt service challenges prompted international rating entities to downgrade the country’s credit ratings throughout 2022. This caused further anxiety among investors, which put even more pressure on the Ghana Cedi. Having been locked out of the international financial market in late 2021, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) eventually, in December 2022, had no option but to announce a suspension of payments on selected external debts and then launched the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

It is within this context that we seek to understand the impact of the DDEP on the banking industry and how banks intend to build back, post-DDEP.