Emerging growth sectors in Ghana, including green technology, climate-smart agriculture, and creative industries, remain largely unbankable under standard lending practices. This assessment comes from Atta Yeboah Gyan, Deputy Managing Director for Operations and Support Functions at Fidelity Bank Ghana.
These sectors offer significant potential to drive Ghana's next phase of economic growth, but they face severe financing constraints. The financial sector's traditional way of assessing risk and return does not fit these industries. This creates a disconnect between the nation's development goals and how capital is allocated.
Ghana's domestic credit environment has been recovering since the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). Loans and advances to industry reached GHS 115.2 billion in April 2026, based on Bank of Ghana data. Private sector credit is expanding and lending rates have eased, with the monetary policy rate holding at 14 percent.
Atta Yeboah Gyan addressed delegates at The Money Summit 2026, stating these sectors are crucial for Ghana's economic future. He noted that banks' traditional lending models are not set up to fully support them. The sectors that will define Ghana's economic identity in the next decade are largely unbankable today by conventional criteria.
Agriculture, for instance, grew by 6.8 percent in 2025. It helped widen Ghana's trade surplus by 26 percent year-on-year to US$5.28 billion by April 2026. Total exports rose 20.5 percent over the same period to US$11.15 billion, largely due to agriculture and extractive industries.
Despite its export strength, agriculture faces significant lending barriers. The Bank of Ghana reported agriculture's non-performing loan ratio at 54.7 percent in February 2026. This is one of the highest among all economic sectors. Mr. Gyan called this a fundamental mismatch between export strength and credit flow.
To address this, patient capital and blended finance structures are necessary. These approaches can absorb risks that commercial banks are unwilling or unable to take on. Such structures often combine different types of funding, such as grants with loans, to reduce overall risk for investors.
Fidelity Bank has implemented several such interventions. The bank disbursed GHS 66.9 million through the Mastercard Foundation's BRIDGE-in Agriculture programme last year. This supported 22,247 smallholder farmers, created 12,912 jobs, and sustained 11,566 more. Women made up 62.4 percent of the direct beneficiaries.
In 2025, Fidelity Bank's GreenTech Innovation Challenge awarded GHS 1.02 million in grants to 16 climate-smart enterprises. This is part of a broader GHS 2 million funding commitment. Additionally, the bank has disbursed GHS 9.83 million through the Orange Corners Innovation Fund to over 55 young entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs work in agribusiness, technology, fashion, and creative industries, creating more than 1,000 jobs.
A further GHS 550,000 in grants and concessionary financing has gone to Ghana's creative economy. These programmes, while modest, show that viable models exist for these sectors. These are not charity, but investments that will define Ghana's economic identity. Policy makers must consider new incentives to encourage banks to adopt these innovative financing models. The current financial framework offers limited incentives for banks deploying patient capital and blended finance structures. This leaves institutions absorbing much of the risk without regulatory recognition. Addressing this imbalance is crucial for sustainable economic development.