Ghana launched Africa’s first credit union at Jirapa in 1955, yet seven decades later the country that pioneered the cooperative savings movement on the continent serves fewer than 5 percent of its adults through credit unions, while Kenya has enrolled one in three.
That gap, highlighted by Joseph Akossey, Executive Director of Proven Trusted Solutions, underscores why the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) decision to bring large credit unions under central bank supervision from the second quarter of 2026 carries significance beyond regulatory housekeeping.
Credit unions with assets of GH¢60 million or above will come under direct BoG licensing and supervision from the second quarter of this year, as part of the Revised Microfinance Sector Framework issued on 27 January 2026. The reforms also replace Ghana’s old Tier 1 to 4 classification with four new institutional categories: Microfinance Banks, Community Banks, Credit Unions, and Last Mile Providers.
Akossey said the structural consequence of decades without robust oversight is a sector fragmented across more than 400 unions with 2.5 million members but negligible national reach. By comparison, Kenya’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) manage assets equivalent to roughly 7 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and have become a mainstream financial channel for middle-income earners.
The data from Ghana’s largest unions illustrates the untapped potential that tighter governance could unlock. The University of Ghana Credit Union reported a total asset base of GH¢320.93 million and savings of GH¢136.74 million in 2024. Dunkwa Traders Credit Union recorded assets of GH¢230 million and deposits of GH¢188 million in 2025. Both institutions will fall within BoG’s new supervisory perimeter.
Akossey urged the central bank to establish a dedicated credit union supervision unit staffed with personnel who understand cooperative principles, warning that applying standard commercial banking templates to member-owned institutions risks distorting their fundamental character. He also called on individual credit unions to replace traditional education committees with professional marketing departments to drive membership growth and close the awareness gap that has long constrained the sector.
BoG Governor Johnson Asiama has acknowledged the sector’s fragmentation, noting that uneven supervision has undermined confidence and limited the ability of community-level institutions to support small businesses and households effectively.
