Bank Rates in Ghana: What Money Costs, and What It Pays
Ghana's benchmark lending rate has more than halved in eighteen months. The rate your bank charges has not fallen anything like as fast. This page tracks the gap, from primary sources, with the date on every figure.
| Rate | Level | As of | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) | 14.00% | May 2026 (held) | The Bank of Ghana's policy signal. It is not the rate you borrow at. |
| Ghana Reference Rate (GRR) | 10.59% | July 2026 | The base every bank prices its loans off. This is the one that matters to a borrower. |
| Average lending rate | 16.33% | April 2026 | What banks actually charge on average, across the industry. |
| Interbank weighted average | 10.23% | 10 July 2026 | What banks charge each other overnight. |
| BoG standing lending facility | 15.00% | 20 May 2026 | MPR plus 100bp. The ceiling of the policy corridor. |
| BoG standing deposit facility | 13.00% | 20 May 2026 | MPR minus 100bp. The floor. |
| 91-day Treasury bill | 5.87% | Early July 2026 | What the government pays you to lend to it for three months. |
| 182-day Treasury bill | 7.79% | Early July 2026 | Six months. |
| 364-day Treasury bill | 12.93% | Early July 2026 | One year. |
The MPR and the GRR are different numbers and Ghanaian coverage routinely confuses them. The MPR is a signal. The GRR is the base your loan is actually priced off, and it is currently the lower of the two.
Between January 2025 and May 2026 the Bank of Ghana cut its policy rate from 28.00% to 14.00%. The Ghana Reference Rate, which banks price loans off, fell even harder: from 29.72% in January 2025 to 10.06% in April 2026, a drop of more than 1,900 basis points.
The average lending rate went from about 30% to 16.33% over the same window. It fell, but nothing like as far. PwC's 2026 Ghana Banking Survey put the same point from the banks' side: the reference rate came down by more than 1,400 basis points while the industry's average lending rate came down by roughly 600.
That difference is the spread the banks kept. It is the single most useful thing a Ghanaian borrower can understand right now, because it means the benchmark falling does not automatically mean your loan repricing. If you are on a variable-rate facility, the reduction is available to be asked for. Most people do not ask.
| Month | Ghana Reference Rate | Average lending rate |
|---|---|---|
| January 2025 | 29.72% | about 30% |
| December 2025 | 15.90% | 20.45% |
| February 2026 | 14.58% | 19.17% |
| March 2026 | 11.71% | 17.74% |
| April 2026 | 10.06% | 16.33% |
| May 2026 | 10.03% | not yet published |
| July 2026 | 10.59% (risen) | not yet published |
Note the turn. The reference rate stopped falling in July and rose, to 10.59%, because Treasury bill yields and the interbank rate both moved up. Anyone expecting loan rates to keep drifting down indefinitely should look at that line again.
The Bank of Ghana used to publish a table called Annualized Percentage Rates (APRs) for Banks' Loans to Households, SMEs and Corporates. It was the only bank-by-bank comparison in Ghana collected on one date, in one format, from every licensed bank, which is what made it a fair comparison at all.
The last release we can find anywhere is June 2025. The Bank of Ghana's own notice page for the series still serves a September 2024 file, and its Interest Rates data page has not been updated since April 2023. Ghanaian media covered every APR release for years and have covered none in 2026.
That release was built on a Ghana Reference Rate of 23.80%. The reference rate is now 10.59%. Those APRs are therefore not merely old, they are wrong as a description of what a bank charges today, and we will not publish them as if they were current.
What we will do is show you the last table the Bank of Ghana published, clearly dated, because it still tells you something durable: which banks priced above the benchmark and which priced below it. A bank's spread over the reference rate is a decision about its own risk appetite and cost base, and it moves far more slowly than the benchmark does. Use it as a shortlist, then ring the banks and ask for today's number.
Sources: Bank of Ghana Monetary Policy Committee (policy rate, held at 14.00% in May 2026). Bank of Ghana, Interbank Interest Rates (interbank weighted average 10.23% on 10 July 2026; standing lending facility 15.00% and standing deposit facility 13.00% effective 20 May 2026, retrieved 12 July 2026). Bank of Ghana, Summary of Economic and Financial Data, May 2026 release (average lending rate 16.33% for April 2026). Ghana Association of Banks monthly Ghana Reference Rate notices (10.06% April, 10.03% May, 10.59% July 2026). Weekly Government of Ghana Treasury bill auction results, early July 2026. Bank of Ghana, Annualized Percentage Rates for Banks' Loans to Households, SMEs and Corporates, June 2025 release, the last one published. PwC Ghana Banking Survey 2026. Rates move; the as-of date on each figure is part of the figure.