‘We must take advantage of current economic crisis to change the way we do business’ - BoG

The First Deputy BoG Governor, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari has shared that critical lessons must be taken from the current economic crisis by leveraging the opportunities for change it presents.

He believes that Ghana must adopt innovative and pragmatic ways of doing business to ensure economic stability is anchored on these measures.

Speaking in an interview with thebanker.com, the first deputy Governor said, “We need to take advantage of this crisis to change the way we do business. Nobody wants to waste the crisis.”

Touching on the impact of the Debt Exchange Programme on the private sector, Dr. Opoku-Afari said the critical area was struggling with adequate capital due to commercial banks taking a hit.

He however pointed that there are gradual signs of recovery beginning to show as adding that credit to the private sector will witness some increased development.

“At the moment, we are not seeing capital going into the private sector because we had a debt restructuring. The [commercial] banks took a hit but we have seen signs of recovery of the banks’ balance sheets in the first half of the year. We are done with the domestic debt restructuring and are expecting the external debt restructuring to be done soon,” Dr. Opoku-Afari said.

“We are very optimistic that the banks will begin to increase their credit into the private sector,” he added.

The First Deputy BoG Governor also added that the Central Bank remains optimistic on consolidating economic recovery gains which will translate to banks increasing their credit lines to the private sector.

“We, as a central bank, are very optimistic that once we are able to solidify and consolidate these [economic recovery] gains, the banks will begin to increase their credit into the private sector,” he told the website.

MA

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