Ghana’s banking industry saw its profitability soar in 2025, with after-tax profits hitting GH¢15 billion, according to the latest Banking Sector Developments report. This marks a substantial 43.5% increase from the GH¢10.4 billion profit recorded in 2024, accelerating sharply from the previous year's growth rate of 26.2%.
The sector's profit before tax also saw strong growth, rising by 38.4% in 2025, compared to a 24.4% increase the year before. This impressive bottom-line performance came despite a moderation in the growth of several key income streams.
While overall income growth slowed slightly, the banking sector benefited significantly from better cost management. Net interest income grew by a solid 16.4% in 2025, a slight dip from the 18.0% growth in 2024. This slowdown was linked to a decline in both lending rates and yields on money market instruments during the year. Similarly, growth in fees and commissions moderated to 9.5%, down from a robust 25.8% in the previous year.
However, these factors were more than offset by a sharper deceleration in costs. The industry's operating expenses grew by only 14.0% in 2025, a notable slowdown from the 22.0% increase seen in 2024. This was attributed to a moderation in staff costs and other non-staff related expenses.
A major boost to profits came from a significant contraction in provisions. The funds set aside for depreciation, bad debts, and other loan losses shrank by 57.1% in December 2025. This is a much sharper contraction compared to the 11.7% decline recorded in December 2024, suggesting an improvement in asset quality.
As a result of the strong profit growth, key measures of profitability improved. The sector's Return on Assets (ROA), which measures how efficiently banks use their assets to generate profit, rose to 5.7% in December 2025, up from 5.0% a year earlier. Meanwhile, the Return on Equity (ROE) remained stable at a strong 30.8%.
