Bank loans to female borrowers increase by 116%; decrease by 15.9% to male borrowers – BoG

Per the Q4 2023 Collateral Registry report by the Bank of Ghana, the gender distribution of secured loans shows that secured loans granted to individual female borrowers and businesses owned by females increased by 116

percent from GHS 609.9 million in Q4 2022 to GHS1.3 billion of secured loans in Q4 2023.

On the other hand, secured loans granted to individual male borrowers and businesses owned by males decreased by 15.9 percent to GHS3.3 billion from GHS3.9 billion over the same comparative period.

In relative terms, the percentage share of secured loans to individual male borrowers and businesses owned by males increased from 30.0 percent in Q4 2022 to 55.9 percent in Q4 2023.

Also, the share of secured loans for individual female borrowers and businesses owned by females increased from 4.6 percent in Q4 2022 to 22.2 percent during the period under review.

In terms of borrower classification, large private enterprises were the highest recipients of secured loans with a percentage share of 60.3 percent in Q4 2023, down from 82.3 percent in Q4 2022.

Individual borrowers constituted the second highest recipient of secured loans with a 20.4 percent share during the review period, up from the share of 7.7 percent share in Q4 2022.