Ghana

THE BANK: Standard Chartered Bank Ghana has been in operation since 1896 when it was known as the Bank of British West Africa. After Ghana’s independence, the bank’s name was changed to Bank of West Africa Limited and upon a merger with Standard Bank in 1969, the name was changed to Standard Bank of...

Capital requirements for domestic insurers have been increased over a number of years. Minimum levels were set in the Insurance Law of 1989, and since then a series of adjustments have been made to strengthen balance sheets and account for changes in global standards. Capital requirements have also been hiked to encourage the merger of smaller...

THE COMPANY: Total Petroleum Ghana was incorporated in Ghana on December 31, 1951 as Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (Gold Coast Limited). It was at that point a wholly-owned subsidiary of Socony-Vacuum Oil of the US. The name of the Ghanaian subsidiary was changed from Mobil Oil Gold Coast to Mobil Oil...

High expectations for the impact of pension reforms on the performance of equity markets and bonds have been deflated after the funding issues and technical glitches slowed the flow of investments from the second tier of the revised pension system. Hundreds of millions of cedis had been expected to be invested annually as 5% of wages were...

The Ghanaian economy is strongly correlated to global commodities such as cocoa, gold and oil, which are the three main sources of income and foreign currency. Price swings for these three resources, increased spending on domestic public sector wages, an electricity shortage and other external factors have combined to slow the pace of...

The finalisation of a $918m borrowing programme through the IMF in April 2015 means Ghana’s economic trends over the short and medium terms will be predictable and structured, featuring a series of just-published targets and objectives. The government and the IMF have agreed to a three-year plan to address challenges. The process is called the...