Ghana Declares War On High Interest Rates

Dr Ekow Spio-GabrahGHANA’S government will from January next year declare war on high interest rates being charged by all the commercial banks and other financial institutions in the country.

The move the government says will help reduce the cost of credit to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other businesses in the West African second largest economy.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah who disclosed this at the third edition of the Graphic-Fidelity Economic Dialogue under the theme-‘The Role of SMEs in Ghana’s Economic Development’ in Accra yesterday said the ministry, the Bank of Ghana (BoG), and other stakeholders were working hard to reduce the lending rates next year.

Quoting statistics from the Asia Development Bank to support his argument, he stated that, “lending rates in Indonesia average 11.7%, South Korea’s is about 4.6%.

In the USA, it is possible to obtain a car loan at 0% but in Ghana lending rates range from 28% to 35% in the formal financial institutions and 45% to 120% in the microfinance institutions depending on the sector they are lending to”. A loans on car titles, or “fast auto loan,” might be tempting if you need cash quickly. But these short-term loans have high fees and can trap you in a cycle of debt that could end with the lender repossessing your car. If you have your car loan problem, then you visit the car title guide.

A car title loan is one among the kinds of loans with a steep interest. Interest is that the fee charged on loan borrowed. Most financial institutions calculate this fee annually. this is often the rationale it’s known to as Annual Percentage Rate, abbreviated as APR. it’s the share of the principle that has got to be paid with the principle. For this sort of loan, the interest is generally calculated monthly. The interest could also be as high as 30% per month. this suggests , if you borrow $1,000, you’ll pay a fee of $300; this is able to amount to a complete of $1,300 in only one month. When calculated annually, this translates an APR of over 300%. You can read more here about car loan guide. Go through https://autoloansforall.ca/ site to know more about Credit Car Loans.

Those people contemplating buying a car with the help of a loan can often benefit from being able to calculate anticipated costs. By having a rough guide on figures to refer to, it can make it a lot easier to evaluate all the possible options available. Online you can find many free examples of the car loan EMI calculator.

This useful little web based number cruncher will be all you need to calculate your own particular set of figures to work from. These special calculators can help you work out possible monthly installments on credit variations.

The letters E, M and I in the car loan EMI calculator stand for equated monthly installments. This explains perfectly what this adding machine does. It simply computes the required monthly payment from the input details you supply. The car loan EMI calculator needs only the number of installments, the annual interest rate and the loan amount in order to compute results. When you give this handy gadget the information it needs it will reward you with an estimated total for each four weekly payment. This will allow you to judge its overall affordability for you. It can also be used to determine the level your borrowing can be comfortably afforded at.

The car loan EMI calculator is perfect for estimating the costing of fixed term borrowing and can often be found on most good lenders sites. When looking through various options for lending you should take a note of loan amounts, interest rates and installment numbers for each offer. You can then use this useful computing tool to assess the value and suitability of each. Cost is not everything of course however it is an important consideration that is an essential element in your evaluations.

Being able to add up how much you will actually be paying each month beforehand is a sensible way to judge affordability. The car loan EMI calculator is a useful assistant in your quest to find the best value for money and the most suitable term period. It gives those wishing to borrow a method to investigate the potential costs in a straight forward and quick manner. If the installment amounts are too high the car loan EMI calculator can easily be revisited again with a new loan configuration to calculate. This can be repeated until the perfect loan amount, term and number of installments is discovered.

Many Ghanaians including a banking industry expert, Nana Otuo Acheampong lauded the government intention to clamp down on banks which charged high lending rates in the country.

But he asked the government to bring its interest rate down by reducing the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) policy rate which stands at 21%.

Explaining more what the government was going to do to integrate the SMEs sector into the larger economy, Dr Spio-Garbrah revealed that the Local Content policy which was introduced in the oil and gas industry a few years ago would be drawn in other sectors of the economy next year.

He stressed: “We want every company in Ghana to have at least 10% Ghanaian ownership”.

The trade and industry minister who was the first to present a statement on the theme noted despite the numerous challenges, including lack of managerial skills, inadequate finance and poor record keeping, Dr Spio-Garbrah was confident that the SMEs could do well when given the necessary support.

According to an International Finance Corporation (IFC) report of 2010, it estimated that the value gap informal SME credit accounted to $700 billion to $850 billion in the developing countries including Ghana.

However the gap in East Asia amounted to a range of $250 billion to $300 billion and that of South Asia was $30 billion to $4 billion.

The same report noted that 45%-55% of formal SMEs do not have access to loans from the formal financial institutions and the ratio increases to 65%-72%72% of informal SMEs.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Julius Debrah used the occasion to call on the players in the banking industry to put place targeted schemes for SMEs in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mrs Mawuena Trebarh said the centre was committed to the development of SMEs enhance its internal restructuring to take care of SMEs’ issues.

She advised owners of SMEs in the country to join the various trade associations to give them the voice to champion their cause.

The Deputy Director of the Fidelity Bank, Jim Baiden pointed out that the bank had committed resources in a bid to develop the SMEs sector, stressing: “Our commitment of the SMEs sector led the bank to acquire ProCredit” this year.

The chairman of the event, Hackman Owusu Agyemang urged the government to pay attention to the SMEs sector because the sector contributes a lot to the socio-economic development of the country.

The Managing Director of the Graphic Ken Ashigbey, urged the media to continued turn their searchlight on issues bedeviling the development of the country and also help provide solutions to the issues they report.

African Eye News.com

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