Ghana

As is the case in many emerging markets, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in Ghana’s economy, driving both activity and employment. Still, their impact is lower than it could be due to a challenging operating environment.

While Ghana’s financial sector has been largely insulated from the worst of the global financial crisis, it will be noticeably affected by changes in rhetoric and regulation slowly transforming the global banking system. The sector benefits from already-robust regulation and while there is scope for consolidation and increased balance sheets, the...

While Ghana benefits from a roster of financial actors, ranging from universal banks to savings and loan institutions to pension funds and susu collectors ( informal depository institutions for market traders and shopkeepers), the country’s capital markets are comparatively modest compared to continental exchanges in Cairo, Johannesburg,...

Outperformance remains the key feature of Ghana’s economy, seven years after the discovery of oil prompted new optimism in the country, which was then celebrating the golden jubilee of its independence. But the GDP growth experienced in 2012 and in the early part of 2013 has been accompanied by an expansion in government borrowing and a worrying...

In a bid to stimulate more activity and to encourage a broader range of businesses to engage with the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), an alternative exchange was launched in May 2013 with the aim of helping develop small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). The Ghana Alternative Market (GAX) has fewer requirements, faster procedures and additional...

Although there are 26 currently licensed universal banks in Ghana and others hoping to join the sector, the market is dominated by six lenders. Between them they have a 51.2% overall share when ranked by assets, although the fact that this has slid from 62% in 2007 indicates the extent to which the market is becoming more competitive.