BoG shelves decision to increase minimum capital requirement

• Posted on May 24, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The central bank is putting on hold its move to announce a further increase in the minimum capital requirement for commercial banks in the country.

The Bank of Ghana had indicated that it was increasing the minimum capital requirement as part of efforts to sanitize the banking sector and to also make the industry viable. It was expected that the current 120 million will be raised to 400 million or even more, an announcement which was greeted with mixed reactions among bankers and industry players.

But governor of the central bank Dr. Ernest Addison says his outfit had relented on the announcement to enable them do some more consultations. According to him, “It is very easy to recapitalize, but its better if we find solutions to the other problems in the banking sector before we recapitalize”. He revealed at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting that “We are holding on for now, and taking our time to ensure that we arrive at a better position and also be clear in our minds. We have taken our time because we think it’s an important issue”.

Though the move is on hold, the Bank of Ghana has maintained that the capital increase is inevitable. They argue that they want to improve the financial position of commercial banks and prevent the situation where most banks, always turn to the regulator for waivers to finance transactions beyond a certain percentage of their minimum capital.

By Grace Asare