Ghana, according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, continues to have the second-largest economy in West Africa.
The president claimed that in spite of the nation’s low credit rates and other problems that contributed to the present economic crisis, this was the case.
On October 16, 2023, the president called on banks to enhance their loans to the private sector during his remarks at the presidential breakfast meeting on agriculture and agribusiness financing in Accra.
He said “The poor credit culture is something that we need to look at very seriously in Ghana. To hear the statement that the level of credit that has come from our financial system to our price sector is one of the lowest in West Africa is also a very disturbing phenomenon. We are lower than Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and others, all of this is against the background that we are still the second biggest economy in West Africa.”
The president emphasized the fact that people tend to forget Ghana’s credentials on the continent, however, if the current rate of credit increased even marginally, Ghana will do better.
Akufo-Addo added “There is a tendency for a lot of people to forget that in spite of all the challenges before the Ghanaian economy, we are the second biggest economy in West Africa. Even with that situation if the amount of money that goes from the banks to the private sector is the lowest in West Africa, my mind boggles, that if these figures were to rise a little bit the transformation that it would bring to our GDP growth, so we need to look at that.”