The Bank of Ghana has expressed optimism that the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) of commercial banks will record a further drop in the first quarter of this year.

“We expect a further decline because what we put out was a restructuring that has taken place until November but we have had some pay downs in December to the BDCs among others which have not been factored into the calculation of the NPLs and that is expected to come down further. So by our next reporting, we should see the NPLs come down further expectedly.”

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Figures from the central bank indicate that the NPLs have increased from 14.7 percent to 17.4 percent between December 2015 and December 2016.

The summary of economic and financial data by the Bank of Ghana shows that the NPLs of commercial banks have increased by 18 percent between December 2015 and December 2016.

The figure increased from 14.7 percent to 17.4 percent between the one year period.

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The highest figure of 19.3 percent was recorded in May 2016. This was followed by July, October, November and August with NPL rates of 19.1, 19, and 18.7 percent respectively.

Major contributors to the NPLs have been the over 4 billion cedis debt owed state institutions such as the VRA, GRIDCo and the ECG.

Also, the government owes over 17 Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) to the tune of 500 million cedis.