Reduce interest rates – Kennedy Agyapong to banks
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has called on commercial banks to reduce interest rates to stimulate economic activity.
“Interest rates in Ghana are very ridiculous and make it virtually impossible for local businesses to compete favourably with foreign companies,” he said.
Mr Agyapong made the call during an engagement with students of the School of Business of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi last Tuesday.
Dubbed: “Practitioners’ engagement on entrepreneurship competencies”, the event, which was organised by the School of Business, in collaboration with the Kumasi Business Incubator, was aimed at providing a platform for the students to learn from industry players some of the skills and qualities needed to survive as entrepreneurs.
Mr Agyapong, who is also a businessman, indicated that most commercial banks added their profit margins to the loans they gave out, which ended up raising the interest rates.
“Many businesses have been complaining about this,” he said, adding that the high-interest rates were the reason most Ghanaian companies would rather import finished goods, instead of producing them locally.
Development Bank
Mr Agyapong urged the newly launched Development Bank of Ghana (DBG) to deal directly with businesses and not give the money to commercial banks for onward lending to businesses.
He said it would be better for the DBG to deal with the private sector and lend the money to that sector at a cheaper rate than pass it through the commercial banks.
According to him, the objective of the DBG of supporting the private sector with cheaper loans would not be achieved if it had to channel the loans through a third party.
