Africa Financial Sector Responses to COVID-19 - Ghana

Instrument

Institution

Financing volume

Description

Measures to support the financial sector

Government

N/A

(May 21, 2020) Ghana launches world’s first digital finance policy amid COVID-19 with the goal of: 
* Improving governance of the digital financial services ecosystem;
* Supporting fintech;
* Creating an enabling regulatory framework.

Financial support measures for the private sector

Government

USD 173 million

(May 20, 2020) Establishment of a fund for granting loans to Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in order to support them in the face of the effects of the health crisis.

Monetary Policy

Bank of Ghana

N/A

(May 20, 2020) Range of monetary policies to support the economy : 
* Reduction of the key interest rate to an 8-year low of 16% to 14.5%; 
* Lowering reserve requirements for lenders from 10% to 8% to provide liquidity support to critical sectors; 
* Lowering the reserve requirement for lenders from 10% to 8% to provide liquidity support to critical sectors;
* Decrease in bank retention margin from 3% to 1.5%, reducing the capital adequacy ratio from 13% to 11.5%.

Regulatory measures

Bank of Ghana

N/A

(April 21, 2020) Central Bank Invitation: Given the risks in the financial sector, the Central Bank urged financial institutions to suspend dividend payments to compensate for potential operating losses.

Regulatory measures

Bank of Ghana

N/A

(March 20, 2020) The central bank is taking steps to promote electronic payment services: 
* Removing mobile phone transaction fees and expanding access to mobile banking services;
* Increasing the daily limit for mobile transactions and doubling the amount that can be held in the digital wallet.