Ghana’s largest bank, Ecobank Ghana (EGH), holds 10.4 percent of total loans in the country’s banking sector.
This is according to a report on the assessment of the 2020 financial year performance of the 23 banks in the country by Asset Management Company, Tesah Capital.
Ecobank Ghana last year cemented its position as Ghana’s biggest bank with an asset value of Ghs 15.95 billion, increasing its asset value by Ghs 2.6 billion in 2020 alone – assets value in 2019 was Ghs 13.35 billion.
Despite the ravaging effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and on its activities last year, the bank managed to post a profit of Ghs 543 million.
Closely following Ecobank Ghana with regards to market share of total loans in the banking sector is South African-owned Absa Bank with total loans of Ghs 9.9 billion.
In third and fourth place are Stanbic Bank and GCB with total loans of Ghs 9.2 billion and Ghs 8 billion respectively.
Ecobank, in terms of market share of total deposits in the banking sector also leads the various banks with a 12.4 percentage points share.
Following Ecobank Ghana is GCB, Stanbic Bank and Absa with 11.5 percent, 9.7 percent and 6.6 percent market shares respectively.
Meanwhile, investments in government bonds by the various banks in the country grew by some 58.5 percentage points from 2016 to 2020.
According to Tesah Capital, banks’ holdings of government bonds as a percentage of total investments in 2016 according to Tesah Capital, was 19.1 percentage points. This, however, increased to 77.6 percent as at the end of 2020.
Treasury bills which used to dominate the investment portfolio of banks with a 79 percentage share in 2016, decreased significantly to 20 percent at the end of 2020.
Investments in equity or shares by banks over the 4 year review period also declined from 1.9 percent in 2016 to 0.4 percent in 2020.
“Although investment holdings of banks increased in 2020, the structure of their investment portfolio remained largely the same. The movement towards longer dated instruments which led to an increase in the share of securities in total investments from 1.1% in 2018 to 1.8% 2019 was reversed in 2020 to 0.4%.”
“Banks’ appetite for GoG securities remain strong as they reduce the size of their loan books in response to the risks presented by the pandemic on banking activities,” stated Tesah Capital.
