The average interest rate on bank loans in Ghana was 15.94% in August 2026, according to the Bank of Ghana's latest Summary of Economic and Financial Data, released on 23 September.
On a simple-interest basis, a GHS 10,000 loan (about US$854 at the 12 November interbank mid-rate of GHS 11.71) would cost GHS 1,594 over a year at that rate. A year earlier, in August 2025, the average was 24.15%, which would have cost GHS 2,415. The difference is GHS 821.
That fall is the comparison the 2027 Budget Statement, presented to Parliament on 12 November, wanted households and firms to notice. "Cheaper credit is now passing on the gains of stability to households and businesses," the finance ministry said.
It put the average commercial bank lending rate at 15.94% in October 2026, down from 22.2% in October 2025.
The Bank of Ghana has not published an October figure. The 15.94% in its last table is for August, not October. The October 2025 rate in that table is 22.22%, which the Budget rounded to 22.2%.
On GHS 10,000, a drop from 22.22% to 15.94% would save GHS 628 a year — the Budget's preferred span — rather than the GHS 821 year-on-year fall from August 2025. Guessed addresses for an October or November data file returned HTTP 404; the latest document listed on the Bank's summary page remains the 23 September release.
The catch is that the decline was not a straight line, and savers have not travelled with borrowers. After falling to 15.64% in June, the lowest month in the published series, the average lending rate ticked up to 15.80% in July and 15.94% in August. A GHS 10,000 loan at the June rate would have cost GHS 1,564 a year, GHS 30 less than in August.
The average lending rate is not a product a customer can walk in and request. It is the Bank of Ghana's measure of what commercial banks were charging, on average, across their loan books. A personal loan, a mortgage or a business overdraft will price higher or lower depending on the bank, the borrower and the type of facility.
The Ghana Reference Rate — the published benchmark many banks use as a starting point when they price loans — was 10.61% in the same August table, 5.33 percentage points below the average lending rate. The monetary policy rate, the Bank of Ghana's own policy interest rate, was already 14.0% in the August table and was held there at the 132nd Monetary Policy Committee meeting on 24 September.
Deposit rates have come down more slowly, and from a lower starting point they now sit close to, or below, inflation. The average rate on savings deposits was 4.10% in August, down from 5.00% a year earlier. That would earn GHS 410 on GHS 10,000 over a year.
Demand deposits, money that can be withdrawn on demand, paid 1.62%, or GHS 162 on the same GHS 10,000. Three-month time deposits, where the money is locked in for a quarter, were quoted at 8.68% a year, and six-month deposits at 9.72%. A year earlier both time-deposit rates were 10.50%.
August inflation, in the same Bank of Ghana table and sourced from the Ghana Statistical Service, was 5.0%. A GHS 10,000 basket of goods would have cost about GHS 500 more than a year earlier — more than the GHS 410 a savings account would have earned, and far less than the GHS 1,594 a loan would have cost.
In real terms, after inflation, the August savings rate was 0.9 percentage points below the rise in prices, while the average loan rate was still 10.9 points above it.
Prices have risen a little further since then. The Statistical Service's latest published card puts year-on-year inflation at 5.5% in October.
At that rate, the same GHS 10,000 basket would cost about GHS 550 more than a year earlier, widening the gap with a 4.10% savings account. Whether bank loan and deposit rates have moved since August is not in any table the Bank of Ghana has issued.
The gap between what banks charge borrowers and what they pay savers has narrowed, but it remains wide. In August 2025 the average lending rate was 24.15% and savings deposits paid 5.00%, a spread of 19.15 percentage points.
By August 2026 that spread had narrowed to 11.84 points. In cedis, the annual interest on a GHS 10,000 loan is GHS 821 lower than in August 2025, while a GHS 10,000 savings account pays GHS 90 less.
The finance ministry's October dating may be confirmed when the Bank of Ghana publishes later months. The September release notes that the data are "subject to revision", and the Monetary Policy Committee meets on 16–18 November. Until a new table appears, the last official average lending rate is 15.94% in August — and by then it had stopped falling.
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