The Ghana Association of Banks (GAB) has threatened to suspend lending to government workers whose salaries are processed through the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department if outstanding payment issues are not resolved.

Chief Executive Officer of GAB, John Awuah, said banks are being forced to absorb losses due to delays in payments to the banking industry, a situation he warned could further worsen the sector’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio.

Speaking to journalists at the Ghana Association of Banks’ 43rd Annual General Meeting on October 8, 2026, John Awuah noted that the banking industry is already under pressure to reduce its NPL ratio to 10 percent, as directed by the central bank.

According to him, achieving that target will be difficult if banks continue to deal with delays and what he described as “willful defaults” in the economy.

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“At this point, I would like to say that as a banking community, we are now very hard-pressed and we are likely going to take a very unusual step of suspending lending to all government workers whose salaries are processed through the Controller and Accountant-General,” he said.

Awuah explained that the issue of delayed payments to banks by the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department has persisted for years and needs to be addressed.

He noted that banks provide loans to teachers, nurses, doctors and other public sector workers on the expectation that the money will be repaid, just as customers expect banks to return their deposits when they request them.

“When we lend to teachers, to nurses, to doctors and other public sector workers, just as when you come to a bank, and you give a bank a hundred thousand, and you want your money, you want your hundred thousand back, when we lend, we want our money back.”

Awuah further shared how the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance intervened when they planned on taking the initiative.

According to him, the situation has persisted, with banks allegedly having to bear the financial impact of payment arrears.

He explained that while banks could understand delays when salaries of teachers, nurses and doctors were themselves in arrears, the situation becomes problematic when the workers have been paid but their loan repayments to banks remain outstanding.

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“We are in October; we are in arrears for three months, and banks are having to take the hit because the Controller has refused to do what they have to do.

"If teachers' salaries were in arrears, nurses’ and doctors’ salaries were in arrears, and because of that, payments of loans to banks are also in arrears, we can understand. But they have been paid, which means that they have settled the loan," he added.

JHM/AM