{
  "id": 7211535,
  "title": "Banks wrote off GH¢1.23bn as bad debt in half-year-2026",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/banks-wrote-off-gh-1-23bn-as-bad-debt-in-half-year-2026-7211535",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-14T00:48:36.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MyJoyOnline Ghana",
    "slug": "myjoyonline-ghana",
    "url": "https://www.myjoyonline.com/banks-wrote-off-gh%c2%a21-23bn-as-bad-debt-in-half-year-2026/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Banks in Ghana wrote off a significant amount of bad debt in the first half of 2026, amounting to GH¢1.23 billion, according to the Domestic Money Banks’ Income Statement. This represents a 38% increase compared to the GH¢893.0 million written off in June 2025. The provision was classified under loan losses and depreciation.\n\nDespite this rise in bad debt, the asset quality risks in the banking sector remained elevated in June 2026, as highlighted in the July 2026 Monetary Policy Report. However, there were improvements in key asset quality indicators. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio fell to 16.1% in June 2026 from 23.1% a year earlier. When the fully provisioned loan loss category is taken into account, the NPL ratio improved further, to 4.6% from 8.5% over the same period.\n\nThe stock of non-performing loans also decreased to GH¢19.9 billion in June 2026, down from GH¢20.7 billion in June 2025. While these developments suggest an improvement in credit risk conditions, asset quality vulnerabilities continue to be a concern. The breakdown of non-performing loans (NPLs) still shows that the private sector dominates banks' loan portfolios, with its share of NPLs rising to 98.0% in June 2026 from 96.4% a year earlier. Conversely, the public sector's share of NPLs declined to 2.0% from 3.6% over the same period. The overall distribution of NPLs remains largely consistent with the industry's credit exposure composition.",
  "summary": "This was 38% year-on-increase over that of GH¢893.0 million recorded in June 2025",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Joy Business",
        "title": "Banks wrote off GH¢1.23bn as bad debt in half-year-2026",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/banks-wrote-off-gh-1-23bn-as-bad-debt-in-half-year-2026",
        "published": "2026-09-14T00:48:36.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "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."
}