Deposit levels in banks rising – BoG

The Bank of Ghana has revealed the deposits levels in banks are on the rise as a result of reforms put in place to clean up the financial sector.

The Bank of Ghana in a bid to sanitise the country’s banking sector has reduced the number of banks in the country from 34 to 23 following a raise in the minimum capital requirement.

Addressing the maiden edition of the GIPC CEO’s Breakfast Meeting in Accra Friday, Head of Banking Supervision at the Central Bank Osei Gyasi described the development as an indication of confidence in the sector.

He said: “We saw people taking their monies out of the banks because of what happened. But the available returns that we have received recently indicates that bank deposits are growing. It’s a matter of confidence, it means people have now bought into the reforms that have been implemented so far.”

“For that matter the ‘Makola’ woman, the kayayei, the public servant, my mother, your children, your parents, the old lady, the old man thinks that the banks that have survived, have come out of the reforms, are capable of holding on to and maintaining the deposits that they put at the disposal of these banks. The deposit levels are rising,” he added.

But a former AGI President James Asare Adjei has questioned the latest claims by the Central Bank.