Ghanaians seeking loans through digital platforms are accounting for the bulk of credit checks conducted by lenders, as the use of credit information becomes increasingly important in decisions on who gets access to borrowing.
The Bank of Ghana’s 2025 Credit Reporting Activity Annual Report shows that digital loans accounted for 76.94% of the 25.9 million credit enquiries recorded during the year, equivalent to nearly eight out of every 10 checks.
In practical terms, lenders and other authorised institutions conducted about 19.9 million checks relating to digital loan customers or prospective borrowers to access information that could help them assess creditworthiness.
The figure rose from 13.1 million in 2024, even as total credit enquiries across the system fell by 12.12%, from 29.5 million to 25.9 million.
The trend highlights the growing importance of digital lending in Ghana’s credit market and the role borrowers’ credit records play in lending decisions.
Why borrowers’ credit records matter
Credit checks allow lenders to review available information about a person’s borrowing and repayment history before deciding whether to approve a loan.
For someone applying for a loan through a digital platform, the information available to the lender can therefore influence how the application is assessed.
But the accuracy of those records is also important. Outdated or incorrect information could affect a borrower’s assessment, although the Bank of Ghana report does not quantify how often such errors lead to loan rejections.
Complaints about credit information increased sharply in 2025, providing another indication of the challenges facing the system.
The report recorded 3,085 complaints and disputes during the year, up 90.8% from 1,617 in 2024.
The complaints mainly concerned delays in updating credit reports and inaccurate information in borrowers’ records.
Banks remain the biggest users
Banks accounted for 86.28% of all credit enquiries in 2025, conducting approximately 22.4 million checks.
The Bank of Ghana attributed the continued high volume of enquiries in the sector partly to the growth of mobile money loans and payroll lending.
Microfinance and microcredit institutions accounted for 8.47% of total enquiries, down from 8.82% in the previous year.
Overall, credit enquiries relating to loan applications accounted for 87.21% of searches, while credit bureau searches and loan recoveries accounted for 10% and 3%, respectively.
BoG moves to improve credit information
The Bank of Ghana is seeking to expand the range of information available to lenders by bringing more institutions into the credit reporting system.
During 2025, the central bank engaged the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Microfinance and Small-Scale Loans Centre (MASLOC) on arrangements for their participation.
The report said the expansion is intended to bring more traditional and alternative data into credit assessments.
The central bank is also developing a Data Hub for Credit Reporting to standardise how financial institutions and other lenders submit information to credit bureaus through a central platform.
The proposed system is expected to improve data quality and address problems arising when lenders submit information late or fail to submit it to some credit bureaus.
The Bank of Ghana also urged borrowers to check their credit reports periodically. Under the Credit Reporting Act, 2007 (Act 726), individuals are entitled to one free credit report each year.
Yet only 305 free reports were recorded in 2025, out of 1,324 personal credit enquiries.
As digital lending continues to account for a large share of credit checks, the accuracy of borrowers’ records and the timely correction of errors remain important to ensuring that credit information supports lending decisions fairly.
