Ghana’s industrial sector is pressing for a dedicated state-backed financing vehicle after acknowledging that the country’s improving macroeconomic numbers have yet to produce meaningful relief on factory floors or in the pockets of ordinary consumers.
The call was one of the sharpest interventions at the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana (CIB Ghana) second Post-Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Policy Seminar in Accra, held under the theme “Balancing Stability and Growth: Interest Rates Impact in Geopolitical Shocks.”
Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) President Kofi Nsiah-Opoku, while acknowledging the macroeconomic improvements, cautioned that benefits have yet to fully translate into increased demand and industrial growth. Although production costs are easing, consumer purchasing power remains weak, limiting sales and slowing industrial recovery. He called for the establishment of a dedicated industrialisation fund to provide long-term, affordable financing to manufacturers, arguing that commercial banks are structurally ill-suited to providing such support given their short-term funding models.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) recently reduced its benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points to 14 percent from 15.5 percent, citing sustained disinflation, improving domestic conditions and elevated real interest rates. Headline inflation declined to 3.3 percent in February 2026 from 5.4 percent in December 2025, after peaking at 23.8 percent in December 2024.
Economic activity has also strengthened, with provisional data from the Ghana Statistical Service indicating real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6 percent in 2025, up from 5.8 percent in 2024. Non-oil GDP expanded by 7.6 percent, buoyed by services and agriculture. Ghana’s trade surplus widened to 3.7 billion dollars in the first two months of 2026, while gross international reserves increased to 14.8 billion dollars, equivalent to 5.8 months of import cover.
Yet industry and traders say these headline figures are not being felt where it matters. Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) President Clement Boateng used the seminar to flag concerns about a newly deployed artificial intelligence (AI) system at ports for calculating import duties and taxes, calling for broader stakeholder engagement before the system becomes further embedded and warning that it has created confusion among traders.
CIB Ghana Chief Executive Officer Robert Dzato said the institute’s pre-MPC survey showed about 72 percent of banking executives expect the macroeconomy to remain stable, and that monetary policy transmission is gaining traction. However, he noted there is still room for further easing to support the real sector.
Delivering the keynote address on behalf of BoG Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, Director of Research Dr Philip Abradu-Otoo stressed that the central bank’s focus in 2026 has shifted from macroeconomic stabilisation to durable, inclusive growth, with the rate cut aimed at lowering borrowing costs and expanding credit access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and traders.
The seminar’s conclusion was unambiguous: macroeconomic stability is a foundation, not an endpoint. For Ghana’s industries and traders, the next test is whether policy frameworks can be reconfigured to ensure the recovery reaches beyond the banking system into the productive economy.
