BoG identifies $4.8bn annual SME financing gap, pushes digital data-driven lending

Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Matilda Asante-Asiedu, said Ghana has made significant progress in digital payments but must now focus on building stronger digital credit systems to ensure businesses can use their transaction histories to access financing.8 billion annual financing gap facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), warning that the country’s sophisticated digital payment infrastructure has not yet translated into equally accessible credit for businesses.“We have built extraordinary payment rails, but we have not yet built equally extraordinary credit rails,” she stressed, pointing to the disconnect between the ability of businesses to receive digital payments and their difficulty in securing working capital.