Some financial analysts are not hopeful the reported recapitalization of about 250 million cedis yet to be announced by the Bank of Ghana will cause mergers to reduce the number of banks in the country.
Currently, the capital requirement for banks in the country stands at 120 million cedis.
Some analysts expect the central bank to use the new capital requirement yet to be announced to reduce the growing number of banks in the country.
Speaking to Citi Business News on the issue, Financial Analyst and Managing Director of Sam Bed Financial Consult, Mr. Sam Bediako-Asante stated that the central bank should have pegged the figure atGHS 400 toGHS 500 million cedis.
Mr. Bediako-Asante who is an advocate for fewer banks has appealed to the Bank of Ghana to help reduce the number of banks from 33 to 15.
“My view is that at the moment the stated capital is just GHS120 million and even with that the majority of them have not met this figure and the reported GHS250 million will still not be enough,” he said.
Justifying the need to increase the capital requirement above GHS250 million, Mr. Bediako-Asante argued that some of the banks are already above the requirement.
“Some of the banks, about two or three are already above the GHS250million so going a little higher to about 400 million to 500 million will do the trick,” he said.
He stated that the central bank has a perfect opportunity to urge banks in the country to merge if the capital requirement is pegged at GHS500 million.
“Presently, many of them wouldn’t be able to gather that figure and that will force them to merge. The bigger ones will acquire the smaller ones and the economy will grow as a result of that,” he stressed.
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