Data providers submitted an average of 21,188,043 loan records to credit bureaus every month in 2023, the Bank of Ghana has disclosed in its 2023 Annual Credit Reporting Activity.

This represented a 455.0% increase compared to 3,820,194 records submitted in the previous year.

Out of the total average submissions in 2023, 99% of these records were made up of data on individual borrowers.

This significant increase is attributed to improvement in the submission of digital loan data to credit bureaus.

S&Ls, finance houses submitted most individual loan data

Savings and loans companies and finance houses submitted the most individual loan data followed by banks and microfinance companies.

Banks submitted the highest number of business loan records accounting for 67.6% of total business loans. This was consistent with previous years.

The Bank of Ghana said it observed that while there was a significant increase in individual loan data submission by rural banks and microfinance companies, their corresponding records for business loans rather reduced significantly.

This was an indication of a rapid paradigm shift in SDIs focusing more on payroll and digital lending.

To curb this menace, the Bank of Ghana said it has intensified its sensitisation of the general public on the ramification for issuance of dud cheques.

As such, customers through sensitisation are informed about the negative implications of dud cheques on their ability to secure new credits. In addition to this, culprits risk the chance of being sanctioned by the Bank of Ghana.

The sanctions involve culprits being barred from accessing credit facilities and issuing cheques for a period of three years.