Compel banks to cut lending rate – GUTA president

• The GUTA president said measures must be put in place to reduce the rate banks charge for lending

• The policy was reduced by the Bank of Ghana on May 31

• Banking consultants have also noted that banks have a few months to adjust their interest rate

The Ghana Union of Traders Association has called for some control mechanism to compel banks to cut their lending rate in line with the reduction in the Monetary Policy Rate.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana reduced the policy rate by 1% basis point to 13.5% from 14.5% for the first time since March 2020.

GUTA president Dr Joseph Obeng believes that some regulatory control measures be put in place to ensure commercial banks follow suit.

“When it was 14.5%, we didn’t do anything so we would plead with the Bank of Ghana to find some control system that will necessarily push the commercial banks to do what they have to do. The onus lies on the bank to do their necessary due diligence and the fact that someone is not paying his bill or paying his loans does not mean that should be shared with the person who is paying legitimately.

He continued, "This is not fair, this is never done anywhere and that the person his loan should be rewarded also and that the one who is not paying must be punished. So if you saying people are not paying their bad loans and that is why we need to spread it evenly, that’s not fair".

Meanwhile, a banking consultant Nana Otuo Acheampong has stated that it could take banks a few months to adjust their interest rate due to the high non-performing loans.

“It may take a while before the banks are able to adjust their interest rate to suit the new policy rate but it can be done. It may not be immediate but someway somehow it will happen,” he said in an interview with Joy Business closely monitored by GhanaWeb.