Business News of Sunday, 24 May 2026

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

BoG reverts to previous Cash Reserve Ratio policy it scrapped last year

Entrance of the Bank of Ghana building Entrance of the Bank of Ghana building

The Bank of Ghana has staged a dramatic U-turn on its decision to jetisson the previous government's policy of keeping CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) on Forex in Cedis.

The decision was taken at the Bank of Ghana's Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on May 20, 2026, and the reversed measure is to take effect on June 4, 2026.

The previous management of the BoG, under the erstwhile NPP administration, as part of measures to tighten liquidity and control inflation, in November 2023, announced a unified 15% CRR on both cedi and foreign currency deposits, with all reserves mandated to be held in cedis.

The Central Bank, at the time, said the move was to control inflation and the forex at a low cost.

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However, in June 2025, the BoG, under the new NDC government, scrapped the policy and announced a currency-matched CRR, which meant foreign currency deposits must be backed by reserves held in the same foreign currency, and cedi deposits were also to be backed by cedi reserves.

Despite the main reason for the switch being to fix what the central bank described as an asset-liability mismatch under the previous arrangement, it has now returned to the policy it scrapped only a year ago.

Experts have said the currency-matched CRR, introduced by the new Bank of Ghana management a year ago, has been costly and has contributed significantly to the Bank of Ghana’s huge losses in 2025.

Unlike the previous arrangement under the previous government, which experts have described as low cost liquidity and inflation management measure, the currency-matched CRR has been viewed as a costly measure which has plunged the Bank of Ghana into huge losses just a year after its introduction.

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