Several board chairs and CEOs of banks have ended their tenure while board members who had served for prolonged periods have all been replaced, the Bank of Ghana has revealed.

This comes after the enforcement of the new Corporate Governance Directives.

After the conclusion of a Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the Bank of Ghana said: “A year after the completion of the clean-up and recapitalisation exercise, the performance of the banking sector has improved markedly, signifying positive dividends from the reform programme.

Enforcement of the new Corporate Governance Directives issued by the Bank as part of the recent reforms led to several board chairs of banks and CEOs ending their tenure, while Board members who had served for prolonged periods were all replaced.”

The report said the banking industry has built up a much stronger balance sheet and recorded strong asset growth, improved quality of loans and profitability during the year.

As such, all the financial soundness indicators, measured in terms of earnings, liquidity, and capital adequacy remained strong.

It said the total assets of the banking sector increased to GHS129.06 billion at the end of December 2019, representing a 22.8% year-on-year growth.

The increase in total assets was on account of significant growth of 22.2% year-on-year in deposits to GHS83.46 billion underscoring renewed confidence in the banking sector.

Meanwhile, the industry’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, computed in accordance with the Capital Requirement Directive under the Basel II/III capital framework, stood at 17.5% at the end of December 2019, and above the 13% minimum regulatory benchmark.

Asset quality also improved significantly and the NPL ratio declined sharply to 13.9 percent in December 2019 from 18.2% in December 2018.

This reflected increased loan recoveries, write-offs, and higher credit growth.