The Bank of Ghana has pledged to offload its shares in ADB Bank to the government.

It has also vowed to address recurring problems at state-owned banks to reduce future needs for government recapitalisation.

This was captured in the International Monetary Fund second review of the Economic Credit Facility programme.

The Bank of Ghana said it will conduct a diagnostic of structural challenges in state-owned banks (covering business models, governance, risk management, and legal framework) and develop a strategy to address them by the end of April 2025 structural benchmark.

“We will conduct a diagnostic of structural challenges in state-owned banks (covering business models, governance, risk management, and legal framework) and develop a strategy to address them (end-April 2025 structural benchmark)”.

In the meantime, it said strong measures adopted to address NIB’s challenges will also serve as a guide to help ADB Bank, by linking recapitalization to inspection, governance reform, business model rationalization, and better risk management.

"In the meantime, strong measures adopted to address NIB’s challenges will also serve as a guide to help ADB, by linking recapitalization to inspection, governance reform, business model rationalization, and better risk management. The BoG aims to offload its share ownership in ADB to the government."

BoG to lift regulatory forbearance soon

Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana says the regulatory forbearance introduced in response to the domestic debt exchange will be lifted as soon as possible.

“Forbearance on the recognition of debt exchange losses in CAR [Capital Adequacy Ratio] computations will be lifted by one-third each year from January 2023 through end-2025. A schedule for lifting other temporary forbearances that were offered to the banking sector to facilitate the DDE [Domestic Debt Exchange], including those lowering minimum capital adequacy ratios (CAR), will be implemented”.

The Central Bank concluded that it is closely monitoring any unintended consequences of these forbearance measures and will adjust them as needed to mitigate undue effects.