The Bank of Ghana has announced a sweeping package of regulatory measures that will reshape the operating environment for Ghanaian banks across three distinct areas: interest charges on digital lending platforms, pricing on foreign-exchange transactions, and non-performing loan management. Governor Johnson Asiama presented the measures in June 2025, signalling a more assertive supervisory posture from the central bank as Ghana's banking sector continues its recovery from the financial strains of recent years.
The new directives on interest charges on digital platforms and forex transaction pricing are set to take effect from July 2025, giving banks a relatively short window to adjust their systems, pricing models, and consumer-facing disclosures. The timeline underscores the urgency with which the central bank wants to address what it regards as opaque and potentially exploitative pricing practices in digital channels, which have expanded rapidly as Ghanaian consumers have shifted to mobile-first financial services.
BLACKLIST DISCLOSURE AND DIGITAL PRICING RULES
Among the most immediately visible changes is a requirement for banks to disclose blacklisted borrowers in their annual accounts. The measure is intended to improve transparency around credit risk and to deter the circular lending practices that have contributed to elevated non-performing loan ratios across the sector. By making blacklisted borrower information part of published financial statements, the Bank of Ghana aims to create a stronger deterrent effect and to give investors and counterparties better visibility into each institution's credit quality.
The digital platform interest rate directive addresses a specific concern that has emerged from the rapid growth of mobile and app-based lending in Ghana. Several digital lenders and bank-affiliated platforms have faced criticism for charging effective annual rates that are difficult for consumers to understand or compare. The Bank of Ghana's intervention seeks to standardise how interest is calculated and disclosed on those platforms, bringing digital lending closer to the transparency standards that apply to conventional loan products.
The forex pricing measures are intended to address distortions in the market for foreign-currency transactions, where customers and businesses have sometimes faced significant differentials between headline exchange rates and the all-in cost of a transaction once fees and spreads are included. The central bank has indicated that clearer pricing rules will support a more competitive and efficient forex market.
NPL CAP AND RECAPITALISATION DEADLINE SET FOR 2026
The most structurally significant element of the package is the introduction of a non-performing loan cap of 10% for financial institutions, which is scheduled to take effect in 2026. Ghana's banking sector has carried elevated NPL ratios as a legacy of the domestic debt exchange programme and broader macroeconomic pressures, and a number of institutions currently operate above what the new cap will permit.
To meet the NPL requirement, banks will need to accelerate loan recoveries, write off irrecoverable exposures, or raise fresh capital — or a combination of all three. The Bank of Ghana has linked the NPL cap explicitly to a recapitalisation requirement, meaning that institutions whose capital positions have been eroded by provisioning on bad loans will need to rebuild their buffers in parallel with cleaning up their books.
The 2026 deadline gives banks approximately eighteen months to put recapitalisation plans in place, a timeframe that analysts regard as ambitious given the current state of Ghana's capital markets and the constraints on foreign investment flows. The Bank of Ghana said it would work with individual institutions to assess their compliance pathways, but made clear that the deadline was firm and that supervisory consequences would follow for banks that failed to meet it.