Some businesses in Ghana are securing loans at interest rates as low as 9%, President John Dramani Mahama has said, pointing to a sharp decline in borrowing benchmarks as economic conditions improve.
The development comes amid a sustained combination of central bank rate cuts, falling short-term Treasury bill yields and changing credit conditions, which are creating room for some corporate borrowers to access capital at lower rates.
Speaking during a tour of major industrial plants in the Tema enclave, President Mahama said macroeconomic stabilisation, fiscal restraint and monetary easing were helping to reduce the pressure government borrowing had placed on private-sector financing.
“We are exercising fiscal discipline. We are making sure that government is living within its means and we are creating space for the private sector to grow,” President Mahama stated. “All the testimonies I have heard this morning from Nestlé to Kasapreko show that their environment for investment has never been so good. The currency is relatively stable. Interest rates have come down from about 32 percent, somebody even told me he borrowed at nine percent, and that is remarkable.”
The Ghana Reference Rate: From 29.72% to 10.04%
The President’s remarks come as Ghana’s key commercial lending benchmark has fallen significantly over the past 21 months.
The Ghana Reference Rate (GRR), which commercial banks use as a benchmark when pricing loans, declined from 29.72% in January 2025 to 19.67% in August 2025, according to financial sector data.
The downward trend continued into 2026, although the rate recorded some increases during the year. It fell to 10.61% in August, eased to 10.18% in September and declined further to 10.04% in October 2026.
The GRR is calculated using a weighted average of the 91-day Treasury bill rate, the Bank of Ghana’s Monetary Policy Rate and the interbank overnight rate. Its decline reflects changes in these underlying market rates, particularly Treasury bill yields and interbank rates.
The latest reduction has come even as the Bank of Ghana has maintained its Monetary Policy Rate at 14% since March 2026. This suggests that changes in government borrowing costs and money-market conditions have continued to influence the reference rate even without further cuts to the central bank’s policy rate.
However, a lower reference rate does not automatically mean every borrower receives a cheaper loan. Banks still consider credit risk, collateral, repayment history, loan duration and their own funding costs when deciding the final interest rate.
How Some Corporate Borrowers Could Break the Single-Digit Barrier
While the GRR provides a common reference point for loan pricing, commercial banks typically add margins to account for the risks and costs associated with individual borrowers.
Businesses with strong financial records, reliable cash flows, adequate collateral and a history of repaying loans may be able to negotiate more favourable terms. In some cases, particularly where lenders consider a business strategically important or its risk profile relatively low, the resulting interest rate may fall below 10%.
President Mahama’s account of a business borrowing at 9% illustrates how far borrowing costs may have fallen for some borrowers. However, the specific loan terms, the identity of the borrower and the conditions attached to the facility would be needed to establish how representative that rate is of lending across the corporate sector.
Several developments could help explain the changing lending environment. Lower Treasury bill yields can reduce the returns banks earn from lending to government relative to other uses of their funds, potentially making private-sector lending more attractive. Greater competition among banks for creditworthy corporate clients could also encourage lenders to offer more competitive terms.
Credit records may play a role as well. Businesses with clean records at licensed Credit Reference Bureaux can be better placed to demonstrate their creditworthiness during loan negotiations. Enforcement measures relating to bounced cheques may also strengthen payment discipline, although their direct effect on lending rates would depend on how banks incorporate such information into their credit assessments.
For manufacturers, exporters and agribusinesses, more favourable loan terms could help finance equipment, purchase raw materials, expand production and manage working-capital needs. But the extent of the benefit will depend on whether lower benchmark rates translate into lower actual borrowing costs.
Widening the Circle of Cheaper Credit
Although large industrial businesses may be among the first to secure loans at single-digit rates, the decline in the GRR could have wider implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Smaller businesses often face greater challenges obtaining credit because of limited collateral, shorter credit histories and less predictable cash flows. As the benchmark falls, they could benefit if banks reduce lending rates and become more willing to extend credit to viable businesses.
The latest figures, however, show that lower benchmarks have not yet translated into single-digit lending across the banking sector. The average commercial lending rate stood at 15.94% in August 2026, according to the Bank of Ghana’s September summary of economic and financial data.
This gap highlights the distinction between a falling benchmark and the actual cost of borrowing. While the GRR creates room for banks to reduce loan rates, individual businesses will continue to face different borrowing costs depending on their risk profiles and the terms of their facilities.
If the downward trend in borrowing benchmarks feeds through to commercial lending, businesses could find it easier to finance plant expansion, acquire equipment and support trade.
For now, President Mahama’s account of a company borrowing at 9% offers an indication of what may be possible for some borrowers, rather than evidence that cheap credit has become widely available across Ghana’s private sector.
