Banks wrote off GH¢1.05 billion as bad debt in the first eight months of 2025, about a 46 per cent decline over the same period in 2024.
This was in the form of loan losses, depreciation, among others.
During the same period in 2024, the Bank of Ghana wrote off GH¢1.95 billion as bad debt.
According to the Domestic Money Banks Income Statement for August 2025, interest expenses were estimated at GH¢10.11 billion, about a 20.9 per cent increase over the same period in 2024.
The Bank of Ghana disclosed that the banking industry’s asset quality improved in August 2025 relative to August 2024, although credit risk remained elevated.
“The improvement in asset quality was broad-based with a decrease in non-performing loans (NPLs) in all economic sectors. This led to a decrease in the NPL ratio for the banking industry,” it mentioned.
The report stated that the banking industry’s asset quality improved during the period under review.
The industry’s Non-Performing Loans (NPL) ratio decreased to 20.8 per cent in August 2025, from 24.3 per cent in August 2024.
When adjusted for the fully provisioned loan loss category, the industry’s NPL ratio also improved from 10.6 per cent in August 2024 to 6.8 per cent end-August 2025. This reflected decreasing shares of both sub-standard and doubtful loans in the NPL stock.
The decrease in the NPL ratio was due to the contraction in the NPL stock (4.4 per cent year-on-year growth) relative to the growth in total loans (10.0 per cent year-on-year growth).
The industry’s NPL stock contracted by 6.1 per cent to GH¢19.8 billion in August 2025 from GH¢21.1 billion in August 2024, indicative of the impact of increased write-offs as well as the appreciation of the Ghana cedi.
By TIMES REPORTER
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