[ 2016-07-13 ]

Financial sector faces challenges
Mona Helen Quartey, Deputy Minister of Finance,
says the task of reforming the financial sector in
the country has not been accomplished.

According to her, the industry is faced with a
lot of challenges, including low levels of
savings, investment gap, huge amounts of money
outside the banking system and limited access to
credit by SMEs.

Ms Quartey cited high financial exclusion and
cost of financial intermediation that has resulted
in the high spread between borrowing and lending
rate as challenges facing the financial sector.

The Deputy Minister, in a speech read on her
behalf at the final draw of Fidelity Bank’s
‘Save for gold’ promotion, said Ghana has the
lowest savings ratio in sub-Saharan Africa- 8 to
12 percent compared to 25 percent average for the
sub-region.

“This is an impediment to rapid growth and
development. Our ability to increase the savings
rate depends on money factors with important one
being the development of savings products by the
banks,” he said.

With micro-economic stability incrementally
improving, Ms Quartey said Ghana is poised for
growth, adding that financial institutions now
have the opportunity to expand their services and
reduce their costs.

She said government is concerned about the
persistent high lending and interested in seeing
the expansion of financial services to the
disadvantage to society, especially the rural
poor.

She called on financial institutions to
demonstrate a commitment to expanding financial
service access for all.

Ms Quartey said domestic resource mobilization
has become very important to how government
finances the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
the AU Agenda 2063 and the country’s own 40-year
national long term plan.

“These visions remain as relevant as ever, but
we cannot achieve the vision without a combination
of results or coming together.

“In addition to regulatory framework and an
enabling environment, human resources and skills
development in Ghana is very important. If you
want to build a stronger and more competitive
economy, we need to build our people,” he said.

“The challenge is a tough one, but I am very
confident that both government and industry are up
to the task,” she added.

Source - dailyguideafrica.com

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