Ghana’s central bank, usually shortened to BoG. Four of the things it does reach ordinary life directly:
- It licenses banks, and the licence is checkable. Every deposit-taking institution and every licensed forex bureau is on a register the BoG publishes. An institution not on it is not a bank, whatever the branding says.
- It sets the policy rate, which is what eventually moves the interest on your loan and the return on your deposit.
- It administers foreign exchange controls under the Foreign Exchange Act 2006 (Act 723). This is why moving money out of Ghana is a documented transaction rather than a button press, and why only licensed institutions may deal in forex.
- It regulates mobile money, including the wallet and transaction limits that decide whether a transfer to you succeeds.
Ghana’s banking sector went through a hard clean-up from 2017 in which several institutions lost their licences and depositors were caught in it. That is the reason the register matters, and the reason an advertised return well above everybody else’s is a warning rather than an opportunity.
The Ghana Deposit Protection Scheme covers deposits at licensed banks up to a limit per depositor per bank — which is an argument for more than one bank if you hold a large balance.
Types of bank account in Ghana Sending money out of Ghana Inflation and the cedi