IMF ranks Ghana 4th in Sub-Saharan Africa with highest private savings

The International Monetary Fund has ranked Ghana in fourth place with the highest private savings in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

According to a recent report published by the Fund dubbed, ‘Private Savings and COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa,’ Ghana increased its private savings from about 24 percent in 2019 to about 30 percent in 2022.

It also noted that, despite the economic challenges posed in Ghana, private disposable income had also increased substantially.

“The private saving rate in SSA has increased during the last two decades to an average rate of 17.3% in 2019 from 11.5% in 1983. However, there is significant heterogeneity across the SSA countries.

Oil exporters and middle-income countries (MICs) are the highest savers in the region. Private saving rates, as expected, are particularly low in fragile states and low-income countries (LICs)”, it pointed out.

Meanwhile, the World Bank in a recent Global Findex Report indicated that although a fraction of Ghanaian adults own bank accounts with a financial institution, ownership remained stagnant since 2017.

It however explained that Mobile Money account ownership for the period surged significantly from 39 percent to 60 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, the IMF report ranked Gabon in first place with the largest private savings in SSA with about 34 percent while Angola and Tanzania came second and third with 32.5 percent and 30.5 percent respectively