Industry, Manufacturing Must Drive 2027 Budget — Ghana Association of Bankers CEO

The banking industry has more money to lend than there are credible businesses to borrow it, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Association of Banks said Wednesday, challenging the government to use the 2027 Budget to stimulate demand for credit by building up industry and manufacturing rather than merely freeing up liquidity.

John Awuah said private-sector credit had expanded by more than 30 per cent over the past year and lending rates had fallen from above 20 per cent to around 15 per cent, with some borrowers receiving offers as low as 9.5 per cent. “I am quite surprised to hear that there is no money in the system,” he said on Joy News’ PM Express ahead of Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson’s budget presentation to Parliament on Thursday .

The Missing Ingredient: Bankable Projects

Awuah’s central argument was that the binding constraint on the economy is no longer the supply of credit but the absence of viable projects capable of absorbing it. He framed the question he wants the Finance Minister to answer: “Do we have sufficient bankable projects for the banks to lend to? And that is the question, the multi-million-dollar question.”

His assessment echoes concerns raised days earlier by Edward Effah, founder of Fidelity Bank, who said Ghanaian banks have consistently had more capital than viable projects over the past decade. Effah noted that loan-to-deposit ratios averaged about 50 per cent, meaning a significant share of deposits sits in government securities rather than flowing to businesses .

The Bank of Ghana’s own data supports the picture of improved credit supply. Private-sector credit grew 35.5 per cent in August 2026 compared with 13.3 per cent a year earlier, while the average lending rate fell to 15.9 per cent from 24.2 per cent over the same period . But the central bank’s credit conditions survey has also noted that while demand for corporate loans is picking up, the recovery remains gradual and uneven across sectors .

Industry and Manufacturing as the Demand Engine

Awuah argued that the budget should direct lending toward sectors capable of expanding production, creating jobs and putting income into households’ hands. He singled out industry and manufacturing, explaining that factory expansion would create employment, and workers with regular incomes would then spend at markets like Kantamanto and other trading centres.

“If the Budget is directed towards industry and manufacturing, and we get a lot more people on the factory floors, these are all people who will be consuming, who will be going to Kantamanto and the like to purchase,” he said.

His remarks connect directly to the demand-side crisis described by Kantamanto traders this week, who said customers routinely halve quoted prices because they have no money. The traders’ problem is not that goods are unavailable or prices are soaring—it is that buyers lack income. Awuah’s prescription is essentially the supply-side counterpart: put people on factory floors, and they become buyers.

The Budget Context

The 2027 Budget is expected to mark a shift from macroeconomic stabilisation toward production and job creation. Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Ampem Nyarko has said no new taxes will be introduced, with the government relying on expenditure rationalisation to finance its flagship programmes . President Mahama has announced a US$10 billion “New Economy” initiative targeting commercial agriculture, textiles, pharmaceuticals, tourism and critical minerals, among other sectors .

The government has also completed its US$3 billion IMF programme and signed a new Policy Coordination Instrument to sustain stability, while gross international reserves reached 4.2 months of import cover in August 2026 . Inflation stood at 5.5 per cent in October, within the central bank’s 6–10 per cent target band, and the policy rate has been held at 14 per cent since March .

Those indicators give the government fiscal room. Whether the budget converts that room into concrete incentives for industrial investment—and whether businesses respond with projects banks consider bankable—remains the open question Awuah posed for Thursday.

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Reporter’s note: The 30 per cent private-sector credit growth figure cited by Awuah is broadly consistent with Bank of Ghana data showing 35.5 per cent growth in August 2026 . The 9.5 per cent lending rate he mentioned is at the low end of indicative APRs published by the central bank; Bank of Ghana data for May 2026 showed one-year SME rates ranging from 11.03 per cent to 33.58 per cent depending on the lender . The Budget was not yet presented at the time of publication.