The Ghana Association of Banks has described the Bank of Ghana’s end-of-September timeline for banks to provide their recapitalisation plans as a prudent decision.

Its Chief Executive Officer, John Awuah, speaking exclusively to Joy Business said the directive is in the best interest of the banks to further aid in improving the banking sector.

According to him, this would also position the banks to support economic growth.

“We all heard from the Governor [Dr. Ernest Addison] just around the time we signed the debt exchange documentation that with the banks they had given us some reliefs on capital and when are we supposed to build up capital”.

“What the Governor is saying is within that period they want to know when capitalization will be coming in so that they have good visibility of the plans of the banks in terms of capital accumulation and the capital to build capital buffers. I think it’s in the spirit of building a base to support the economic recovery”, he explained

Mr Awuah expressed optimism about the further recovery of the banking sector in the second and third quarters of 2023.

He added that the various reforms done by the sector and positive economic indicators in recent times will boost more confidence within the sector.

“It will not be a day or night event, but a situation when we will witness gradual improvement within the sector. We are seeing certain positive trajectories within the economic variables.”

“We have seen inflation coming down and the cedi also appreciating against other major foreign currencies so I will say the banking sector is gradually taking shape but we all have a role to play”, he continued.

He however indicated that government and the regulator would have to put in more effort to improve the banking sector.