Ghana’s challenge in financing businesses is not a shortage of capital but a weakness in the country’s financing architecture, Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Matilda Asante-Asiedu, has said.
She said the country had significant pools of capital in banks, pension funds, retail investments and development finance institutions, but existing financing structures were not adequately connecting that capital to businesses that needed it.
Ms Asante-Asiedu made the remarks at the National ICT Week 2026 in Accra, where she highlighted financing, regulatory coordination and cybersecurity as critical issues that must be addressed to enable innovation and business growth.
She said many businesses required medium-sized, short-term working capital to execute contracts and expand their operations, but often struggled to access appropriate financing.
For instance, a business requiring about GH¢500,000 for between 30 and 90 days could find it difficult to secure the funds through conventional financing channels.
According to her, traditional banks often demand substantial collateral and undertake lengthy appraisal processes, while microfinance institutions typically provide smaller loans at relatively higher costs.
She therefore called for a financing architecture that could better match available capital with the specific needs of businesses, particularly enterprises seeking working capital to fulfil viable contracts.
Regulatory coordination
Ms Asante-Asiedu also identified regulatory fragmentation as a major challenge to innovation, particularly in the rapidly evolving digital financial sector.
She noted that digital lenders, insurtech companies and virtual-asset service providers often operated across the mandates of different regulatory institutions.
She argued that Ghana’s regulatory framework needed greater coordination because technological innovation increasingly cut across traditional institutional boundaries.
Without stronger coordination, she warned, regulatory gaps could create opportunities for regulatory arbitrage or push innovative businesses towards jurisdictions with more responsive regulatory environments.
She said regulators must therefore adapt their approaches to reflect the changing nature of digital businesses and ensure that innovation was supported without compromising financial stability and consumer protection.
Cybersecurity as an economic priority
The Second Deputy Governor further stressed that cybersecurity could no longer be treated solely as a technical matter or an issue to be addressed after digital systems had been deployed.
She said cybersecurity had become a critical component of Ghana’s economic and financial architecture as businesses, financial institutions, government agencies and consumers increasingly relied on digital platforms.
The growing dependence on digital services, she noted, meant that weaknesses in cybersecurity could have wider economic consequences, including disruptions to businesses and loss of confidence in digital financial systems.
She therefore called for cybersecurity to be treated as an integral part of Ghana’s digital transformation agenda.
Ms Asante-Asiedu said addressing financing constraints, regulatory fragmentation and cybersecurity weaknesses would be essential if Ghana was to move beyond individual innovations and create an environment in which businesses and digital solutions could scale sustainably.
