The Bank of Ghana paid GHS 16.73 billion in 2025 as interest to commercial banks. This payment was for instruments used to absorb excess money from the financial system.
This amount is nearly double what the Bank of Ghana spent in 2024. It represents approximately 75 percent of the central bank's total operating income before costs. Commercial banks, meanwhile, recorded estimated profits of nearly GHS 15 billion in the same year. This significant spending raises questions about the cost of monetary stability.
Ghana's economy has seen positive changes. Inflation, which was 54.1 percent in December 2022, dropped to 5.4 percent by December 2025 and 3.4 percent by April 2026. The cedi has held stable, and Treasury bill rates have fallen sharply. The International Monetary Fund's Extended Credit Facility program is on track. Investor confidence is slowly returning to Ghana's domestic financial markets, indicating a fragile but improving economic outlook.
Norman Adu Bamfo, writing for BFTOnline, highlighted the GHS 16.73 billion figure from the Bank of Ghana's 2025 audited financial statements. KPMG approved these statements on April 30, 2026. Bamfo questions whether the monetary stabilization framework has become an arrangement. This arrangement, he suggests, transfers billions from the central bank to commercial banks annually. This occurs while the private sector borrows at high real interest rates that hinder productive investment.
The Bank of Ghana performs Open Market Operations (OMOs) to control inflation. This involves issuing short-term bills, known as BoG bills, to commercial banks. Banks buy these bills, removing cash from circulation in exchange for an interest payment later. This process is called sterilization and is a normal tool for central banks. However, the issue in Ghana is the large scale of these operations and their high cost.
By the end of 2025, the total value of outstanding OMO bills, sold to banks, reached GHS 93.56 billion. This is a nearly threefold increase from GHS 32.68 billion at the end of 2024. The average interest rate on these bills was close to 18 percent. This rate closely followed the Monetary Policy Rate. Each additional billion cedis in outstanding bills adds about GHS 180 million per year in interest costs for the Bank of Ghana.
The current cost structure is unsustainable for any institution, including a central bank. This situation requires a careful look at its underlying causes. Commercial banks have concentrated between 68 and 70 percent of their investment securities in short-term OMO instruments and Treasury bills in 2025. This shows how profitable these central bank operations have become for commercial banks. The government and the Bank of Ghana will need to address these structural issues. They must find a balance between monetary stability and sustainable financial practices.