{
  "id": 1762836,
  "title": "US$4.8bn SME financing gap exposes Ghana’s credit challenge — A call for swift implementation of open banking, open finance reforms",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/us-4-8bn-sme-financing-gap-exposes-ghanas-credit-challenge-a-call-for-1762836",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-18T17:23:26.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Joy Business",
    "slug": "joy-business",
    "url": "https://www.myjoyonline.com/us4-8bn-sme-financing-gap-exposes-ghanas-credit-challenge-a-call-for-swift-implementation-of-open-banking-open-finance-reforms/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ghana’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital to the country’s economic transformation, yet their growth is hampered by a persistent financing gap of approximately US$4.8 billion. This financing shortage has been a long-standing issue, highlighted by various stakeholders, including the British International Investment (BII) and more recently, the Bank of Ghana.\n\nThe Bank of Ghana has recently published a Draft Open Banking Directive for Regulated Financial Institutions, signaling a crucial step towards a financial ecosystem where customers can securely share financial information with authorized third parties. This move to open banking, combined with broader open finance reforms, could significantly address the credit challenges faced by Ghanaian SMEs.\n\nThe financing gap is not solely a capital shortage issue. While Ghana has a range of financial institutions, including banks, microfinance companies, fintechs, and development finance institutions, many SMEs struggle to be adequately assessed by conventional lending models. SMEs often lack conventional collateral, audited financial statements, or formal credit history, making it difficult for lenders to assess risk. This leads to higher interest rates, shorter loan tenors, larger collateral requirements, or even loan rejections.\n\nOpen banking offers a solution beyond just a technological project. By allowing customers to consent to regulated institutions and approved third-party providers accessing specified financial information through secure APIs, a more comprehensive and data-driven credit assessment becomes possible. This would enable lenders to evaluate transaction patterns, cash flow consistency, and other permitted financial information alongside traditional credit data. For instance, a fintech could develop alternative credit-scoring models, a bank could automate parts of the SME underwriting process, and an SME could receive lending decisions based on actual economic activity rather than just collateral assets.\n\nHowever, open banking should not be seen as a mechanism for indiscriminate lending. Its value lies in providing better information, enhancing competition, improving underwriting efficiency, and potentially offering more tailored financial products. The Bank of Ghana's Draft Open Banking Directive is timely, as it establishes a foundation for a more connected financial ecosystem. It is anchored in existing legal and regulatory frameworks, including the Payment Systems and Services Act, the Data Protection Act, and the Cybersecurity Act.\n\nTherefore, the next crucial step is swift implementation of open banking, with clear direction and strong coordination. While open banking is essential, it should not limit the framework to just bank account information. SMEs interact with numerous financial service providers, including banks, payment platforms, mobile money providers, insurers, investment platforms, and pension providers. A more comprehensive open finance architecture is necessary to leverage the full potential of digital finance for Ghana's SMEs.",
  "summary": "Open banking, complemented by a broader open-finance architecture, can help Ghana address one of the fundamental problems behind the SME credit challenge: the information gap between businesses that need finance and financial institutions that must assess risk before providing it. It is tempting to view the US$4.8 billion financing gap purely as a capital shortage. That would be incomplete.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "MyJoyOnline Ghana",
        "title": "US$4.8bn SME financing gap exposes Ghana’s credit challenge — A call for swift implementation of open banking, open finance reforms",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/us-4-8bn-sme-financing-gap-exposes-ghanas-credit-challenge-a-call-for",
        "published": "2026-08-18T17:23:26.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}