Banks Write Off GH¢1.39bn Bad Debt in 10 Months

Banks in Ghana wrote off GH1.39 billion as bad debt in the first ten months of 2025, marking a 56.7% increase from the 1.0% rise in October 2024.

According to the Domestic Money Banks Income Statement, the total provisions made up of loan losses, depreciation, and others, were significantly higher than the previous year. In October 2024, the government wrote off GH3.22 billion.

Despite the increase in bad debt, the banking industry’s asset quality improved during the period under review. The industry’s Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio declined to 19.5% in October 2025, from 22.7% in October 2024. This ratio also improved from 9.4% in October 2024 to 6.8% at the end of October 2025 when adjusted for the fully provisioned loan loss category.

The decline in the NPL ratio was due to the contraction in the stock of NPL and a modest pickup in credit. The banking industry’s NPL stock contracted by 6.2% to GH20.1 billion in October 2025 from GH21.4 billion in October 2024. This showed the impact of increased write-offs and repayments as well as the appreciation of the Ghana Cedi.

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