Ghana's banking sector capital adequacy climbs to 22.07 per cent as supervisory framework tightens

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ghana’s banking sector capital adequacy ratio reached 22.07 per cent in early 2026, up from 14 per cent at end-2024 and well above the international Basel requirement of 13 per cent. The Bank of Ghana’s supervisory framework, tightened through 2025 alongside the country’s broader macroeconomic stabilisation, has produced a banking system that international assessors now regard as among the better-capitalised in West Africa.

The non-performing loan trajectory tells the same story from a different angle. NPLs fell from 22 per cent at end-2024 to 18.9 per cent by close-2025, with a target of 10 per cent by end-2026. The supervisory focus has shifted from volume of credit to quality of credit, with the Bank of Ghana enforcing tighter governance expectations on bank boards, stricter anti-money-laundering compliance, and more granular operational-resilience requirements.

NCB Financial Group's quarterly profit collapses to $5.2 billion as one-time gain washes out

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

NCB Financial Group Ltd reported net profit of J$5.2 billion for the quarter ended March 2026, down sharply from J$17 billion in the same period a year earlier — a collapse driven almost entirely by the absence of a one-time gain the group had booked in the prior-year quarter from the sale of its Dutch insurance brokerage unit. The Gleaner reported the result.

For diaspora investors and retail shareholders tracking the conglomerate, the headline number requires careful reading. Strip out the prior-year one-off, and the underlying operating performance is more stable than the year-over-year comparison suggests. The Dutch sale was an asset disposal, not a recurring income line; the current quarter’s number is closer to the cleaner run-rate of NCB’s core financial-services business. That said, the magnitude of the optics — a 69 per cent drop in reported profit — is the kind of headline that moves sentiment among retail investors and the broader Jamaica Stock Exchange.

Banking on The Tradewinds Brief

Ghana's banking sector capital adequacy climbs to 22.07 per cent as supervisory framework tightens

NCB Financial Group's quarterly profit collapses to $5.2 billion as one-time gain washes out