The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has joined the Basel Consultative Group (BCG), a global body that sets and implements standards on banking supervision globally.
The bank said it was admitted into the global body recently, making Ghana one of four countries in Africa to be members of the BCG.
The other members are Tunisia, Mauritius and Nigeria.
The BCG is one of five working groups that form the internal structure of the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision (BCBS), the global standards-setting body for the supervision of banks.
The statement issued Thursday said: “As members of the BCBS is limited to G20 countries, the BCG provides a platform for the BCBS to engage with non-members, thereby, facilitating broader dialogue around the work, with banking supervisory authorities such as BoG and promoting supervisory cooperation and implementing supervisory standards and best practices.”
The statement said the BoG’s membership of the BCG would increase the exposure of its banking supervisory staff to best practices in the supervision of banks, and strengthen its cooperation with other supervisory authorities around the world.
“BoG remains committed to promoting the safety and soundness of Ghana’s banking sector through effective regulation and supervision,” the statement said.
In 2017, the NPP government took a firm decision that was titled “FINANCIAL SECTOR CLEAN UP” and ended up collapsing about 9 different banks, 23 different Savings and Loans companies, 386 different Microfinance companies, and 53 fund management institutions in the country.
This development at the time attracted a lot of commentary from experts within the sector with most of them blaming the Bank of Ghana for not playing its supervisory role effectively to avoid the situation. Some experts warned of serious repercussions on the Ghanaian economy since the move had resulted in thousands of job losses.
The outcome is a smaller but more sustainable banking industry, though this has come at a price. The Bank of Ghana (BoG) puts the total costs of its clean-up operation at some GHS10.98bn ($2.1bn), equivalent to just over 3% of the nation’s GDP in 2019.
The government expended GH¢21 billion to clean up the banking sector, the President, Nana Akufo-Addo has announced. … A regulatory crackdown on poor business practices and weak capital positions in Ghana’s banking sector has resulted in a series of market exits since August 2017.
