Ghana Access to Finance

World Bank Group

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO FINANCE;    SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES;    SME FINANCE;    MICROFINANCE;    FINANCIAL INCLUSION;   

RP-ID  :  129096

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Ghana has low levels of financialinclusion of individuals and access to finance for firmsremains a major challenge; some of the key issues includelow ownership and usage of accounts, dominance of cash,limited access points, limited electronic and mobiletransactions, and high collateral, overall limitingoutreach. Financial inclusion figures fare well compared tothe Sub- Saharan Africa region, but in absolute terms only40.5 percent of adults have an account at formal financialinstitution. Ownership and usage of electronic paymentinstruments is very low and the majority of transactions areconducted in cash. Mobile banking in Ghana is at a nascentstage with only 13 percent of adults having a mobile accountand the number of mobile phone-based financial transactionsis incipient. While majority of small and medium firms haveaccess to formal accounts, large majority of them relies oninternal finance for investments, with only around 23percent having a bank loan or line of credit. Private sectorcredit to GDP is low at about 19 percent in 2014. Ghana’slimited infrastructure restricts access to both formal andunregulated financial institution, particularly in ruralareas, with limited number of branches and ATM networks.Finally, high collateral requirements of over 200 percent ofthe loan amount for all-sized firms and over 250 percent forsmall firms, with real property as the most frequent type ofcollateral required, makes access to formal financevirtually prohibitive for many firms. The Access to FinanceNote for Ghana identifies key issues and recommendations toenhance access to formal financial services for firms and topromote financial inclusion of individuals. The noteprovides a status of financial inclusion and access tofinance in Ghana, along with a review of banking andmicrofinance sectors, including decomposition of interestrate spreads based on available data, leasing sector, aswell as key financial infrastructure issues related tocredit reporting, secured transactions, and payment system.Further, this note complements a collection of analyticalwork related to access to finance agenda, including notes onthe microfinance sector, private equity and venture capital,diagnostic review of financial consumer protection, and astudy on development finance, all providing more details onthese topics.