According to the Bank of Ghana’s latest Collateral Registry Quarterly Brief, micro-businesses in Ghana experienced a significant reduction in their share of secured loans, declining to 1.8% from 3.3% in the same period in 2023,
This downward trend indicated a decline in micro-enterprise credit access, which is crucial to the country’s economic growth.
In contrast, the overall value of secured loans granted by banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) saw a modest increase of 2.8% year-on-year, totaling GH¢5.6 billion in Q3 2024. Banks accounted for GH¢3.5 billion of this amount, while SDIs contributed GH¢2.1 billion.
The Commerce and Finance sector led in secured loan allocations, getting 36.3% of the total value in Q2 2024. This was followed by the Services sector at 16.6% and the Construction sector at 9.8%.
Geographically, the Greater Accra region dominated secured loan distributions, accounting for 62.8% of the total value in Q3 2024. The Ashanti and Western regions followed with shares of 19.2% and 4.8%, respectively.
However, the share of secured loans granted by foreign-owned banks dropped to 51.5% in Q4 2024 from 74.6% in Q4 2023, while domestically owned banks increased their share to 48.5%, up from 25.4% in the same period the previous year.
This shift reflects the increasing role of local banks in secured lending, even as foreign-owned banks remained the primary drivers of secured loans during the period under review.
