Bright Simons, <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nRecords show that major banks in Ghana posted losses in 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Bloomberg reported that Ghana\u2019s move to restructure its local-currency and overseas debt resulted in the first loss on record for two of the West African nation\u2019s top banks.<\/p>\n
GCB Bank Plc, the country\u2019s largest lender by assets, posted a 593.4 million cedis ($50.5 million) net loss for the year to end-December, its first since 1993 when Bloomberg started maintaining data.<\/p>\n
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Ltd., the biggest by market value, reported a loss of 297.8 million cedis.<\/p>\n
Banks operating in West Africa\u2019s second-largest economy have taken a hit of about $1.4 billion, according to Bloomberg, as Ghana restructures most of its public debt, estimated at 576 billion cedis.<\/p>\n
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The impairments prompted Guaranty Trust Holding Co., Nigeria\u2019s largest bank by market value, to vow to slow lending and bond trading in Ghana.<\/p>\n
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GCB Bank took a charge of 1.83 billion cedis after impairing its debt securities, while for Standard Chartered Bank Ghana the amount was 173 million cedis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ghana\u2019s lenders were allowed a month\u2019s extension to release full-year earnings.<\/p>\n
Sharing his views on this development, a Vice President of Imani Africa Bright Simons said \u201cThe health of Ghana\u2019s banking sector on my mind as the country\u2019s largest bank by branches, GCB, posts dramatic losses for 2022. 568 million GHS. Negative cash flows from investment activities nearly hit a billion GHS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily, he added, \u201d deposits are surging due to news insensitivity.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued \u201cAll this got me musing about banking history in Ghana. The recent cleanup is of course just the latest. In 1989, 41% of all bank loans went bad. Government stepped in & issued bonds to buy the bad loans. Non Performing Assets Recovery Trust\u2019s (NPART) was set up to recover. By 1991, recovery rate was an impressive 72%.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore recent banking interventions have seen poor results. In 1997, the Founder of A-Life Supermarkets (now CEO of First Allied) hatched a scheme where he deposited cheques in Accra issued on accounts in the regions. Lack of networking led allowed him to cash 129bn cedis<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the accounts on which the cheques were drawn didn\u2019t have the money. In the end, less than 20% was recovered from ALife. When govts changed the state forgot to pursue. The banking cleanup of 2018\/2019 looks set to record less than 10% recovery. Diminishing returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The health of Ghana’s banking sector on my mind as the country’s largest bank by branches, GCB, posts dramatic losses for 2022. 568 million GHS. Negative cash flows from investment activities nearly hit a billion GHS. Etc. Luckily deposits are surging due to news insensitivity pic.twitter.com\/NX4bUcvr9M<\/a><\/p>\n\u2014 Bright Simons (@BBSimons) April 26, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Bright-Simons2-696x402.jpg\" "\\"Bright")