Dr Johnson Asiama, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, says the government is repositioning ARB Apex Bank Limited as a strategic policy institution for Ghana’s microfinance and community banking sector.
He said this was part of broader efforts to restore macroeconomic stability and strengthen the resilience of the financial system.
Dr Asiama was speaking at the Governor’s Day Annual Dinner in Accra.
The Governor’s Day Dinner is an annual tradition of CIB Ghana, held in line with its mandate to promote both the study and practice of banking, while also offering an opportunity for fellowship among industry players.
The event provides a platform for the Governor to share reflections on the sector and offer forward guidance for 2026 and beyond, while also serving as a key networking forum.
He said the ARB Apex Bank would be restructured to go beyond its traditional role as a support institution for rural and community banks.
He said instead it would serve as a central intermediary for policy transmission, institutional support and sector-wide capacity building across the microfinance ecosystem.
He explained that the reform would align the Apex Bank with a new institutional architecture for inclusive finance, which would comprise four complementary categories: microfinance banks, community banks, credit unions and last-mile financial service providers, each with clearly defined mandates and prudential requirements.
The Governor said the reforms formed part of a comprehensive microfinance sector strategy to be announced in the coming days.
It aimed at addressing longstanding structural weaknesses, strengthening supervision and rebuilding public confidence in institutions that serve vulnerable communities and support local economic activity.
Dr Asiama said the renewed focus on the microfinance sector came alongside decisive macroeconomic and financial-sector interventions undertaken over the past 10 months, following a period of heightened uncertainty and eroded confidence.
He noted that when the current management assumed office, inflation was close to 24 per cent, market behaviour reflected uncertainty, and confidence in policy coordination had weakened.
He said the first priority was to re-establish monetary and market discipline, even when the decisions required were difficult.
The Governor recalled that at his first Monetary Policy Committee meeting in March, the Bank increased the policy rate by 100 basis points, a move he described as necessary to anchor inflation expectations and reinforce the central bank’s commitment to disinflation.
“These decisions were not about signalling toughness, but about restoring credibility and correcting policy missteps,” he added.
Dr Asiama said the policy tightening was supported by governance reforms at the MPC, including transparent majority voting and the publication of individual votes, to strengthen accountability and public trust.
He outlined a series of operational reforms, including the recalibration of the dynamic cash reserve requirement, the widening of the policy rate corridor, tighter net open position limits to reduce speculative foreign exchange exposure, and the re-engineering of open market operations.
“These measures reshaped liquidity planning across the system, restored clarity to short-term rate signalling and improved policy transmission,” he said.
As a result, inflation declined steadily to 6.3 per cent, while the cedi appreciated by more than 20 per cent by November, reflecting on a return of order rather than speculation.
The improved environment also allowed the MPC to reduce the policy rate by a cumulative 1,000 basis points over the year.
Dr Asiama said confidence had returned to the Ghana Fixed Income Market, with trading volumes more than doubling by October compared with the previous year, signalling renewed market participation following the domestic debt exchange programme.
Beyond macroeconomic stabilisation, the Governor said the Bank focused on strengthening the integrity of the financial system.
He noted that although 11 banks were below the prudential capital threshold at the end of 2024, the number had fallen to five by November 2025 due to recapitalisation efforts, supervisory engagement and improved economic conditions.
He said banks had been given clear timelines to reduce non-performing loan ratios towards a 10 per cent benchmark by end-2026, while governance standards were tightened, particularly in foreign-owned institutions, to strengthen local oversight, data protection and operational resilience.
Dr Asiama said Ghana’s ongoing mutual evaluation had reinforced the need for effective, not just paper-based, compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements.
The Governor also highlighted progress in building financial infrastructure, including the completion of the National Payment Systems Strategy (2025–2029), migration towards ISO 20022 messaging standards, reforms to remittance oversight, agent banking interoperability, and the passage of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill to regulate digital asset activities.
