Total liabilities recorded by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) as at the end of April 2021, amounted to Ghs 142 billion.
This, when compared to the Ghs 115 billion liabilities recorded at the end of 2020, represents an increase of some Ghs 26.9 billion in the Bank’s liabilities.
Per the data contained in the April Statistical Bulletin released by the Central Bank and perused by norvanreports, the Bank’s liabilities on a year-on-year basis increased by some Ghs 36.4 billion, as liabilities recorded by the Central Bank at end-April 2020, stood at Ghs 106 billion.
In the banking or financial services space, liabilities is often viewed as an ‘asset’ and not debt due to the fact that a major component of a bank’s liabilities are deposits made by customers which the bank can in turn use for credit creation by lending the monies out to other customers as loans.
Of the liabilities posted for end-April 2021, domestic liabilities accounted for Ghs 36 billion with foreign liabilities also accounting for Ghs 29.8 billion.
“Other liabilities”, the Bank noted, accounted for Ghs 53.3 billion of its total liabilities.
Deposits from government – Ghs 26.1 billion – accounted for the majority of the regulator’s domestic liabilities, followed closely by some Ghs 9.7 billion deposits also made by the various commercial banks in the country.
Deposits from public institutions, Bank of Ghana (BoG) further noted formed only Ghs 289 million of its liabilities.
The Central Bank, with regards to its foreign liabilities, failed to give a breakdown of the items that constituted its foreign liabilities, but one can always expect funds realised from issued Eurobonds and other foreign loans taken by government to be a major component of the bank’s foreign liabilities.
The Banks’ foreign liabilities at end-April 2021 stood at Ghs 29.8 billion.
In terms of its total assets, foreign assets held by the Central Bank at end-April 2021, amounted to Ghs 56.8 billion from the end-December 2020 figure of Ghs 43.5 billion.
Items that made up the Central Bank’s assets include Special Drawing Rights (SDR) with the IMF, foreign currency and balances with banks, gold bars holdings and foreign securities.
On the domestic front, the Bank’s claims on government (assets) with respect to treasury bills purchased by the BoG as well as loans and advances made to government, amounted to Ghs 42.7 billion.
