Ghana ranked 4th in Sub-Saharan Africa with highest private savings

Ghana is ranked 4th in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with the highest private savings, a report by the International Monetary Fund on “Private Savings and COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa’ by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)” has disclosed.

Despite the challenges facing the economy, the report stated that private savings in Ghana grew from about 24 per cent in 2019 to about 30 per cent in 2022.

Again, oil exporting and middle-income countries such as Ghana, are the highest savers in the region.

The report further added that private disposable income in the country had gone up considerably.

“The private saving rate in SSA has increased during the last two decades to an average rate of 17.3 per cent in 2019 from 11.5 per cent in 1983.

However, there is significant heterogeneity across the SSA countries. Oil exporters and middle-income countries (MICs) are the highest savers in the region. Private saving rates, as expected, are particularly low in fragile states and low-income countries (LICs),” it pointed out.

The World Bank in its recent Global Findex Report said though the share of adults in Ghana having an account at a financial institution remained mostly stagnant since 2017, mobile money account ownership increased to 60 per cent from 39 per cent in 2017.

Again, the July 2022 Banking Sector Development Report by the Bank of Ghana also revealed that deposits recorded a robust growth of 19.1 per cent to ¢131.3 billion as of the end of June this year, albeit lower than the growth recorded a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Gabon is the number one country in Sub-Saharan Africa with the largest private savings of about 34 per cent.