Director of Business Operations at Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, is predicting a higher interest rates for the rest of 2023.

The high interest rates have been a longstanding issue for many Ghanaian businesses as the 91-day treasury bill is hovering around 22%, whilst the one-year bill is going for about 29%,

Speaking at the Canada Ghana Chamber of Commerce (CANCHAM) Business Webinar, Joe Jackson said the rates need to remain high to help reduce inflation.

“Even though things may look stable, there’s still a lot that could go wrong between now and the end of the year because not all these agreements [International Monetary Fund] have been fully signed yet. There’s still volatility ahead of us”.

“On interest rates, the bad news is that I expect it to remain high. The rates have to be kept high to put a hold on inflation and start to bring it down to manageable level and that’s not going to happen in three months. So until the end of the year, expect your interest rates to be high”, he said.

Ghana’s central bank maintained its benchmark interest rate at 29.5% in May 2023, the first time since it started hiking it in May 2023.

Although inflation has seen a decline since the beginning of the year, the Central Bank maintained the rate due to global underlining uncertainties.

The policy rate is of keen interest to businesses, since it is the rate the banks borrow from the Central Bank.

It subsequently influences average lending rates on loans to individuals and businesses.