The Managing Director of Unilever Ghana, Charles Cofie is urging commercial banks to cut down their interest rates. A number of banks have reduced their lending rates over the past few weeks following the latest cut in the policy rate by the Bank of Ghana to 13.5 percent. Barclays Bank and Agricultural Development Bank currently have the lowest rates of 22 percent and below, even though Ghana Commercial Bank is expected to go considerably lower when it finally responds to the latest policy rate cut. It appears however that some industry players are not impressed with the latest cuts. Charles Cofie tells Joy Business the banks would have to cut their rates further to minimize the difference between the policy rate and the average base rate. “From where I sit, when the banks talks about non-performing loans, the industry average is like 19 or 20 per cent. But this is very high. “It is for the banks to work with other agencies within the economy to ensure that their monitoring and compliance teams that give out loans are able to recover them effectively so that small companies that form the backbone of the economy are not unduly punished,” he said. Source: Joy Business/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana