Walk into a Ghanaian bank and say “I want to open an account” and you will be asked which kind. This is the answer to that question.
For the documents and the queue, the other guide:
— How to open a bank account in Ghana
The short version
| If you are | Ask for |
|---|---|
| Salaried, ordinary spending | Savings |
| Running a business, writing cheques | Current |
| Paid in dollars, euros or pounds | Foreign currency (FEA or FCA) |
| Abroad, opening from outside Ghana | Non-resident or diaspora |
| A student | Student, while it lasts |
| Saving for something specific | Fixed deposit or a susu product |
Most people need a savings account and a MoMo wallet, linked. That covers almost everything ordinary life asks of you in Accra.
Savings
The default, and the right answer for most people.
It pays some interest, charges low fees, and comes with a card and mobile banking. Some savings accounts limit how many withdrawals you can make in a month without a charge — ask, because it is the one term that catches salaried people who use the account as a current account.
No cheque book. If you have never needed to write a cheque, you do not need one.
Current, and why people say “cheque account”
A current account is for regular transactions: money in and out constantly, an overdraft facility if the bank offers you one, and a cheque book. Ghanaians very often call it a cheque account, and the two words mean the same thing here.
What you give up: higher fees, usually monthly, and little or no interest. What you get: cheques, higher transaction limits, and the account type a business is expected to hold.
You need one if you are registered as a business, you receive payments that arrive by cheque, or you pay suppliers who expect one. Cheques are far from dead in Ghanaian commerce — rent, school fees and contractors still move that way.
— Registering a business — Freelancing in Ghana
A dud cheque is a criminal matter, not an inconvenience
Issuing a cheque that bounces is an offence in Ghana, not simply a fee. Banks report it, and it follows you. If you hold a cheque book, know your balance before you write.
Foreign currency: two accounts, not one
If you are paid from abroad or want to hold value outside the cedi, this is the distinction that decides what you can actually do, and getting it wrong means a deposit refused at the counter.
| FEA — Foreign Exchange Account | FCA — Foreign Currency Account | |
|---|---|---|
| Funded by | Foreign exchange earned in Ghana | Transfers from abroad only |
| Cash deposits | Accepted | Not accepted over the counter |
| Transfers abroad | Yes | Yes |
So: money wired to you from a client overseas goes to an FCA. Dollars you earned here, or hold as notes, go to an FEA. If you do both, you may need both, and the bank will tell you so at the point of refusing the deposit rather than beforehand.
— Sending money out of Ghana — Inflation and the cedi
Can you open one online?
Partly, and the honest answer is the one nobody advertising “open an account in five minutes” gives you.
What you can do online is start the application: most Ghanaian banks have a web or in-app form that takes your details, your Ghana Card number and a photograph, and several will finish the account opening without you visiting a branch if the Ghana Card verification against the NIA database succeeds.
What you cannot do online is get around the Ghana Card. The account is identified by it, so an application from someone who has never been enrolled in person cannot complete, whatever the app appears to promise. Card first, account second, in that order, always.
What frequently sends you to a branch anyway: a Ghana Card whose details do not match what you typed, a signature card the bank wants wet-signed, a cheque book, and anything to do with a business account.
The practical advice is to start it online and expect one branch visit. Going in with the application already submitted is much faster than going in cold.
— Getting a Ghana Card — How to open a bank account, step by step
Opening one from abroad
You cannot fully open a Ghanaian account from a laptop overseas. The account is tied to a Ghana Card, and getting one means being enrolled in person by the NIA.
What does exist:
- Non-resident accounts, which several banks offer with their own documentation route — typically a passport, proof of address abroad, a reference, and sometimes a visit to a correspondent bank
- Diaspora accounts, marketed specifically at Ghanaians abroad, often paired with a foreign currency option
Both still generally want you, or a properly mandated representative, at some point in the process. Ask the bank directly what it accepts before you plan around it.
— Receiving money in Ghana — Getting a Ghana Card
Fixed deposit, and the susu question
A fixed deposit locks money away for an agreed term at an agreed rate. The rate is the only reason to do it, and the number to compare it against is not zero — it is the inflation rate. A fixed deposit paying under inflation is losing you money politely.
A susu is the informal version, and for a great many traders it is the real savings system. Banks now sell formalised susu products. The informal kind depends entirely on the collector, and collectors do disappear.
What the account actually costs you
Ask for these in writing before you sign, because they are where the money goes:
- Monthly or quarterly maintenance fee, and whether a minimum balance waives it
- Minimum opening balance, and minimum operating balance
- ATM withdrawal charges, especially at another bank’s machine
- Interbank transfer fees, and what the same transfer costs over MoMo
- SMS or e-statement charges — small, monthly, and permanent
- Dormancy: an account nobody touches for a long period gets frozen and charged, which catches people who open an account and then leave the country
USSD banking, which matters more here than an app
Every major Ghanaian bank runs a USSD short code — you dial something like
*XXX# and bank from any phone, with no data and no smartphone. Balance,
transfers, airtime, bill payment.
It is not a lesser option. On a patchy connection it works when the app does not, and for a great many customers it is the primary channel. Ask for your bank’s code and register it at the branch while somebody is there to fix it.
— USSD, if the term is new — Mobile money
Link it to mobile money on day one
Bank-to-wallet and wallet-to-bank transfers run over the national interoperability system, and being able to move money both ways is what makes the pair useful. Do it at the branch while you are there.
— Mobile money — Fintech apps in Ghana
Is your money safe?
Deposits at licensed banks are covered by the Ghana Deposit Protection Scheme, up to a limit per depositor per bank. That limit is worth knowing if you hold a large balance in one place, and the sensible response to a large balance is more than one bank.
Ghana’s banking sector went through a hard clean-up from 2017, and several institutions lost their licences. The lesson people drew from it is the right one: check the institution is licensed by the Bank of Ghana, and treat an unusually high advertised return as the warning it is.
— Online fraud in Ghana — How to open a bank account — Income tax and PAYE