Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has set a new target for Ghana’s credit market, saying the government wants commercial borrowing costs pushed into single digits as businesses seek cheaper and more accessible financing for expansion.
Speaking during a meeting with the Food and Beverages Association of Ghana on September 29, Forson said the cost of capital had fallen substantially since the beginning of 2025 and argued that some businesses can now obtain bank credit at between 9% and 13%. He said the government nevertheless wants borrowing costs to fall further so firms can expand production and employment.
The Minister also shifted the discussion from the price of credit to its availability, arguing that banks are still not lending enough to businesses. That creates a more demanding policy test. Ghana’s lending rates have fallen sharply and private-sector credit is expanding rapidly, but lower system-wide interest rates do not automatically guarantee affordable financing for every productive firm.
Official Lending Rate Remains Above Forson’s Range
Bank of Ghana data confirm a substantial reduction in borrowing costs, although the official banking-sector average remains above the 9%–13% range cited by the Finance Minister.
The Bank of Ghana’s September 2026 macroeconomic data show that the average commercial-bank lending rate declined from 30.25% in January 2025 to 15.94% in August 2026. It stood at 24.15% in August 2025. The Ghana Reference Rate also fell sharply from 29.31% in January 2025 to 10.61% in August 2026.
Forson’s 9%–13% figure should therefore be understood as a range available to some borrowers rather than the economy-wide average lending rate. Loan pricing varies with collateral, credit history, loan tenure, sector and borrower risk. The broader easing in financing conditions is nevertheless consistent with recent reductions in commercial borrowing costs.
Private Credit Is Already Expanding Strongly
Forson’s concern about the availability of credit also comes as private-sector lending is expanding strongly. Nominal private-sector credit reached GH¢123.3 billion in August 2026, compared with GH¢91 billion a year earlier, representing annual growth of 35.5%. In real terms, private-sector credit grew by 29%.
Total bank advances also reached GH¢129.2 billion, up 35.5% year-on-year. Those figures show that lending has recovered materially. They also suggest that the policy question is increasingly about the distribution, affordability and productive use of credit rather than simply whether aggregate lending is rising.
For manufacturers, processors, traders and smaller firms, access matters because business expansion often requires working-capital facilities, equipment finance and longer-term credit before improving macroeconomic conditions can translate into higher production. That concern also fits the recent expansion in Ghana’s secured-credit market, where larger transactions have driven a sharp increase in the value of registered credit.
Single Digits Require More Than Lower Treasury Yields
Moving average commercial lending rates sustainably into single digits would require more than lower Treasury yields. Banks must still cover funding and operating costs while pricing for credit risk and expected loan losses. Borrowers with weak collateral or uncertain cash flows may therefore continue to face higher rates even when benchmark rates fall.
Credit risk remains important. Ghana’s banking-sector non-performing loan ratio improved from 20.8% in August 2025 to 15.7% in August 2026, but that still represents a significant share of impaired credit. Lower defaults, stronger credit information, more effective loan recovery and lower transaction costs would support cheaper lending without weakening financial stability.
The policy rate also remains at 14% after the Monetary Policy Committee kept it unchanged on September 24. System-wide single-digit lending would consequently require further improvement in inflation expectations, bank funding costs and borrower risk if lower rates are to be commercially sustainable rather than administratively forced.
Credit Access Becomes the Next Transmission Test
Ghana’s monetary transmission mechanism has strengthened considerably. Lower inflation, declining Treasury yields and previous monetary easing have pushed commercial lending rates downward while private credit has recovered.
The next test is whether those gains spread sufficiently across the productive economy. A large company with strong collateral and established banking relationships may already negotiate rates close to the range cited by Forson, while a smaller trader, processor or emerging manufacturer may still face higher rates, limited collateral acceptance or outright credit rationing.
The scale of the rate decline also changes the policy conversation. When borrowing costs were near 30%, the immediate challenge was macroeconomic stabilisation. With rates now much lower, attention shifts toward whether banks are transmitting that improvement evenly across sectors and firm sizes.
That difference matters for investment and employment. Falling average rates produce their strongest economic effect when viable businesses can obtain appropriately priced financing for inventories, machinery, expansion and new workers.
Ghana’s next credit-market challenge is therefore not simply to push interest rates lower, but to ensure that cheaper finance reaches productive borrowers broadly enough to support growth without rebuilding bad loans or weakening bank asset quality.
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