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RADP / Pulse Ghana  >  news  >  business

There are too many banks in Ghana – Barclays MD

Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh

The Managing Director of Barclays Bank Ghana Mrs Patience Akyianu argued that the Bank of Ghana (BoG), must rather strengthen the existing banks so they function to their ultimate best.

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This is an assertion made by the Managing Director of Barclays Bank Ghana Mrs Patience Akyianu.

She said this at the 2017 edition of the Ghana Economic Forum in Accra on Tuesday (August 8, 2017).

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She argued that the regulator – the Bank of Ghana (BoG), must rather strengthen the existing banks so they function to their ultimate best.

“For a population of 26 million, GDP just around 40 billion with 36 banks and counting, I think we must rather focus or strengthening the existing banks by ensuring that they are well capitalised.”

She rather suggested that the BoG supports the activities of the existing banks instead of licensing more banks.

The Bank of Ghana must instead “support some of the projects that we do to move this country forward. In addition to that, we must actually focus on ensuring that existing banks are capable of serving their customers more efficiently and include the large unbanked population.”

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The argument of the number of banks in Ghana has been raised several times.

Some industry players have often compared Ghana to Nigeria where they have a higher population than Ghana but have about 26 banks, and South Africa also has only seven banks with a population of more than 55million people.

Others have said that it allows for competition in the industry.

But Akyianu believes “it’s not about the number of banks. It’s about capacity, size and strength.”

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Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh A feminist at heart and a lover of art. She loves to write on business, politics and health.

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