Banks operating in Ghana wrote off GH¢1.86 billion as bad debt as of August 2026.
This is a 76.3% increase over GH¢1.05 billion recorded during the same period in 2025.
According to the Banks’ Income Statement published by the Bank of Ghana, the provision is made up of loan losses, depreciation, among others.
The banks’ operating expenses also rose by 6.4% to GH¢13.25 billion in August 2026.
Meanwhile, asset quality indicators improved during the review period, with the Non-Performing Loan ratio declining to 15.7% in August 2026 from 20.8% a year earlier, while the adjusted NPL ratio fell to 3.8% from 6.8%.
Despite these improvements, the Bank of Ghana pointed out that the stock of non-performing loans increased marginally to GH¢20.2 billion from GH¢19.8 billion, largely reflecting valuation effects on foreign currency-denominated NPLs.
Consequently, the credit risk conditions strengthened, although asset quality vulnerabilities remain elevated.
The decomposition of NPLs continued to reflect the dominance of private sector credit in banks’ loan portfolios. The private sector accounted for the largest share of NPLs, with its contribution rising to 98.0% in August 2026 from 97.4% in August 2025.
In contrast, the share of NPLs attributable to the public sector declined to 2.0% from 4.0% over the same period.
The distribution of NPLs remains broadly consistent with the sectoral composition of industry credit exposures.
According to the Central Bank, the improvement in asset quality was broad-based across the banking industry’s credit portfolio, with most sectors recording lower NPL ratios during the review period.