Best Banks in Ghana: 2021 Performance Ranking of Ghana’s Banking Sector

In 2017, the banking sector experienced a financial sector clean up conducted by the current government; where the nation witnessed the collapse of several banks due to their insolvency, capital inadequacy, related party transactions and several others.

Although this necessary exercise came with its own challenge (as described by the World Bank Country Director, Mr Pierre Laporte), records show that the performance of the industry has been favourable post the event.

This report generally highlights the performance of banks in Ghana for 2021 and ranks them in terms of Revenue, Profit, Customer deposit, Customer loans and Return on equity (ROE).

The 2021 year's performance showed that the banking sector was well-capitalized, solvent, liquid and profitable with improved financial sector indicators.

The sector consists of 23 banks across the 16 regions of the country; however, the focus will mostly be on the top 10 performing banks for all indicators except the ROE which looks at the top 19 banks based on available data as of March 2022.

Best Bank in Ghana by Revenue – 2021

Revenue here is the total amount of income generated by the services related to the bank's primary operations; mostly the interest banks receive from loans given out.

For revenue, GCB came first, with an amount of GHS 2.39 billion which is about a 23% increase from the prior year, 2020. This was followed by Ecobank with revenue of GHS 1.99 billion, a 10% rise from 2020.

Absa Bank Ghana came 3rd, generating an income of GHS 1.64 billion, 17% more than they had in the prior year.

See the table below for the top 10 industry players:

Best Bank in Ghana by Profit – 2021

Like all businesses, banks profit by earning more money than what they pay in expenses. The major portion of a bank's profit comes from the interest that it earns on its loans and the fees that it charges for its services. Its major expense is the interest paid on its liabilities.

Absa Bank Ghana registered its position as the most profitable for 2021 with a figure of GHS 1.06 billion, 55% more than they made in 2020; followed by Ecobank GHS 886 million, about 15% more than the previous year and GCB coming 3rd with GHS 810 million, 35% more than 2020.

See rankings below:

Best Bank in Ghana by Volume of Customer Deposits 2021

In simple terms, customer deposits here will refer to the money a bank receives from a depositor. In banking, this deposit is an asset to the customer and a liability to the bank. Generally, the amount of deposit available, informs the number of loans given out.

Here, Ecobank took the lead on customer deposits with a figure of GHS 14.53 billion, 13% higher than the previous year, GCB came second with GHS 13.91 billion and Stanbic came third with GHS 11.31 billion; 16% and 12% higher than 2020 respectively.

Best Bank in Ghana by Volume of Loans given out – 2021

A Consumer Loan is a loan the banks offer to customers to finance the customer's expenditures. This may be any type of loan made to a consumer by a creditor.

Examples may include mortgages, personal loans, Auto loans, asset finance for appliances etc.

With customer loans, Ecobank took the lead at GHS 5.63 billion, followed by Absa and Stanbic with GHS 5.30 billion and GHS 5.18 billion respectively.

See rankings below:

Best Bank in Ghana by Return on Equity – 2021

Return on equity (ROE) looks at how efficiently the banks are generating profit from money that investors have put into the business. For basics, ROE is calculated by dividing net income by total shareholders' equity.

As a key indicator and very useful to investors, we look at the top 19 banks based on the data available as of March 2022.

See the table below:

Source: Published 2022 Financial Statements of banks in Ghana (Obtained from their official websites or
the Daily newspapers). Compiled By: Edem Korbla Agbavor, Corporate & Investment Banking Analyst, ABSA Bank Ghana, Finance.