Loan Rates Drop as Banks Respond to Lower Ghana Reference Rate(Borrowers to Benefit!)
The Ghana Reference Rate (GRR) dropped to 15.68 percent on January 7, 2026, and commercial banks have started lowering interest rates on both new and existing loans. This change comes after a small drop from the 15.9 percent recorded in December 2025, and it is already being seen across the banking sector, especially in loans with variable interest rates.
John Awuah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Banks, said that the adjustment process has become almost automatic because of how loan prices are set in the market. He said that variable-rate loans are directly affected by changes in benchmark indicators, which makes it hard for banks to hold off on passing on lower rates to borrowers when the underlying rates change.
He said that the GRR’s drop was caused by changes in important financial indicators, such as the monetary policy rate, Treasury bill rates, and interbank rates. Mr. Awuah said that banks are not intentionally slow to pass on rate cuts to customers and that the GRR is not an arbitrary number. “The Ghana Reference Rate is a rate that comes from other rates. He said, “It can’t change on its own unless other indicators, like the monetary policy rate, Treasury bill rates, and interbank rates, move.”
Mr. Awuah also defended how big the drop was, saying it was completely in line with market data at the time. He said that the GRR had one of the biggest drops among major interest rate indicators over the past year, except for Treasury bill rates. Because of this, borrowers who take out variable-rate loans in January 2026 are likely to pay less in interest than borrowers who took out similar loans at the end of 2025. This shows that the recent rate change has had a positive effect on credit conditions.
