The banking sector has recorded a growth in profit-after-tax of GH¢2.24 billion, a 38.4 per cent growth over profits recorded by the banking sector for the same period last year (43.9 per cent growth in August 2018).

This was captured in the bank of Ghana's Banking sector report for September 2019 on the developments in the sector as of August 2019. The growth in income can be attributed to a growth in the banks' two main sources of income, interest income (income derived from loans being repaid) and fees and commissions (income from charges on accounts, cards, etc.).

"The strong profit performance was underpinned by higher growth in net interest income of 26.3 per cent in August 2019 after recording a marginal contraction in August 2018, as well as modest growth in fees and commissions (12.0 per cent in August 2019 compared to 14.6 per cent in August 2018)." "The higher growth in net interest income reflected both higher interest income from investments and credit," the reported stated.

The impact of the banks' growth in income lines was reduced by an increase in the banks' operational expenses (funds that go to ensure banks run daily).

"However, the higher growth in operational expenses by 13.4 per cent, against a favourable decline of 4.3 per cent in the previous year moderated the effect of the strong growth in net interest income on net income."

The loan books of the banks also grew modestly with a greater share of the loans going to the private sector and the rest to the public sector, though the growth of loans to the public sector contracted.

“Growth in gross loans and advances (excluding loans under receivership) rebounded during the period under review compared to the same period last year. Gross loans and advances increased from GH¢33.82 billion in August 2018 to GH¢38.90 billion in August 2019, representing an increase of 15.0 per cent compared to the contraction by 9.6 per cent in the previous year."

"The share of private sector credit in total credit declined marginally in favour of loans to the public sector from 92.4 per cent in August 2018 to 90.4 per cent in August 2019."

Loans to the public sector experienced modest growth also. "The share of credit to the public sector increased during the review period to 9.6 per cent in August 2019 from 7.6 per cent in August 2018. The increase was reflected in all components of public sector credit namely credit to the government, public institutions, and public enterprises."

"The Bank of Ghana’s Banking Sector Report is published after each Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings. The report highlights developments in the banking sector which were deliberated on during the policymaking process.

The aim of publishing the report is to provide the public with information on the performance of the banking sector which served as inputs for the MPC meetings. Through the publication of this document, the Bank of Ghana aims to promote accountability for its decision making and promote transparency in the monetary policy formulation process." 

The report chronicles the 23 banks operating in the country as at August 2019 and provides an aggregated look at the industry and covers metrics for examining the industry such as capital adequacy ratio, liquidity, profitability, return on assets & equity.