The Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies (GHASALC) has appealed to the investing public to have confidence in the financial system despite the losses incurred by the lenders, due to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

According to its Executive Secretary, Tweneboa Kodua Boakye, the only way the financial sector can thrive during these times is a strong confidence from the public.

His comment follows a recent assessment of financial statements of banks by Dr. Richmond Atuahene and K B Frimpong revealing that banks will lose additional ¢6 billion due to reduced coupon rate and the extension of the maturity period from five to 15 years.

In an interview with Joy Business, Tweneboa Kodua Boakye said restoring confidence in the financial system is the only alternative to get-out of the current situation.

“We want to encourage the public to continue to have this confidence because we don’t have any other alternative to what we are going through. We will also continue to play our intermediary role to make sure that the monies that we receive from the customers when they are in need of it they get it”.

Banks wrote-off ¢5.9bn as bad debt in 2022

Banks operating in Ghana wrote-off about ¢5.9 billion as bad debt in December 2022.

According to the Domestic Money Banks Income Statement, this is about 184.2% increase over the previous year.

The total provision made were classified as loan losses, depreciation, and others.

Though the Bank of Ghana did not give reasons behind this bad debt, it is believed that a difficult economic environment that triggered a high cost of borrowing may be the main reason.