Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, says community banking has become one of Ghana’s most successful financial inclusion programmes, helping millions of people access formal banking services while supporting poverty reduction over the past five decades.
Speaking at the Rural Banking@50 celebration and Transition to Community Banking event at Bank Square in Accra on Thursday, July 16, Dr Asiama said expanding financial access remains central to Ghana’s development because it gives individuals and businesses the opportunity to improve their livelihoods.
He noted that the Bank of Ghana has, over the past year, renewed efforts to ensure the financial sector plays a stronger role in supporting government’s poverty reduction and inclusive growth agenda.
“It is well established that improving access to finance across the population helps lift people out of poverty. That is why the concept of bringing banking to the doorstep of ordinary people remains as relevant today as it was 50 years ago,” he said.
Dr Asiama traced the origins of the rural banking model to 1976, explaining that it was introduced to bridge the gap between formal financial institutions and the thousands of farmers, traders and small business owners who had little or no access to banking services.
He said many productive Ghanaians lived far from commercial banks and depended largely on informal methods of saving and borrowing.
“A farmer could produce crops that earned foreign exchange for the country and still live a day’s journey from the nearest banking counter. A trader could feed an entire town and yet remain invisible to the financial system,” he remarked.
Unlike conventional banking expansion, Ghana adopted a community ownership model, allowing local people to establish and own financial institutions that understood the needs of their communities.
“The rural banking programme did not propose sending banks into communities. It proposed that communities should own their own banks,” Dr Asiama said, adding that the Bank of Ghana supported the early institutions with seed capital and developed the regulatory framework needed for their operations.
He said the movement began with the establishment of Ghana’s first rural bank in Nyakrom in the Central Region, an initiative that later inspired similar institutions across the country.
“What we are celebrating today began with one community deciding to own its own bank. Everything else—the 147 institutions, the more than eight million customers and the nationwide presence—grew from that single decision,” he said.
According to the Governor, the community banking model has since become a vital source of financing for agriculture, small businesses and households.
He recalled that rural banks played a key role during the introduction of the Ghana Cocoa Board’s Akuafo Cheque Scheme in the 1980s by enabling cocoa farmers to cash their payment cheques within their own communities.
Beyond agriculture, he said the banks have helped traders, artisans and families save securely, finance education and invest in small businesses.
Dr Asiama also credited the establishment of the Association of Rural Banks and ARB Apex Bank with strengthening the sector by improving operational support and connecting community banks to the wider financial system.
He disclosed that the industry currently consists of 147 licensed institutions operating nearly 1,000 branches nationwide, serving more than eight million customers and holding assets of about GH¢26 billion as of June 2026.
“The numbers are significant, but they represent much more than institutional growth. They demonstrate that the original idea worked,” he said.
Despite the sector’s achievements, Dr Asiama acknowledged that some community banks had collapsed over the years because of governance failures, eroding public confidence and affecting depositors.
“When a community bank failed, the loss was not simply recorded in a supervisory report. It affected people’s savings, their confidence and the trust they had placed in an institution carrying the name of their own community,” he said.
He said those experiences have informed ongoing reforms by the central bank aimed at strengthening governance and preparing community banks for the future.
The Governor also paid tribute to pioneers of the rural banking movement, including former Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Amon Nikoi, whom he credited with championing the concept in 1976.
He also honoured the late Emmanuel Asiedu-Mantey, former Head of Banking Supervision at the Bank of Ghana, describing him as one of the strongest advocates of community banking.
Dr Asiama said Mr Asiedu-Mantey supervised him when he first joined the central bank and later chaired a committee in 2016 that reviewed the rural banking framework and proposed reforms.
Although implementation of the recommendations stalled after he left office, Dr Asiama said he revived them upon returning as Governor last year.
Looking ahead, he said the shift from rural banking to community banking reflects changes in Ghana’s economy while preserving the sector’s core objective of serving local communities.
“The purpose remains the same: ensuring that ordinary Ghanaians have access to the financial services they need to improve their lives and contribute to economic growth,” he said.
