… calls for greater use of patient capital and blended finance to support green technology, agriculture and creative industries
Green technology, climate-smart agriculture and creative industries remain largely unbankable under conventional lending standards despite their potential to drive Ghana’s next phase of economic growth, Atta Yeboah Gyan, Deputy Managing Director for Operations and Support Functions at Fidelity Bank Ghana, told delegates at The Money Summit 2026 organised by the B&FT.
Addressing the summit, which had as its theme ‘Building Trust, Capital, and Stability for Ghana’s Economic Future’, Mr. Gyan said the financial sector’s traditional risk-return framework was not designed to support many of the industries expected to define Ghana’s economic future, creating a growing disconnect between the country’s development priorities and the allocation of capital.
‘The sectors that will define Ghana’s economic identity in the next decade are largely unbankable today, by conventional criteria. That is a problem we must start solving now,” he said.
His remarks come as the domestic credit environment continues to recover following the disruptions associated with the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). Industry loans and advances reached GH¢115.2 billion in April 2026, according to Bank of Ghana data, as private-sector credit expands. Lending rates have eased, while the monetary policy rate has remained at 14 percent since the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Despite the improving macroeconomic backdrop, Mr. Gyan argued that the distribution of credit remains poorly aligned with the sectors generating growth, exports and employment.
Agriculture, which expanded by 6.8 percent in 2025, helped underpin a trade surplus that widened by 26 percent year-on-year to US$5.28 billion as of April 2026. Total exports rose 20.5 percent over the same period to US$11.15 billion, driven largely by agriculture and extractive industries.
Yet the sector continues to face severe financing constraints. Bank of Ghana data show agriculture’s non-performing loan ratio stood at 54.7 percent in February 2026, among the highest across economic sectors.
“There is a fundamental mismatch between where our export strength comes from and where our credit is going,” the Fidelity Bank DMD said.
He argued that addressing the imbalance would require a greater deployment of patient capital, blended finance and concessionary funding structures capable of absorbing risks that conventional commercial lending is often unwilling or unable to accommodate.
Fidelity Bank has pursued several such interventions in recent years. Through the Mastercard Foundation’s BRIDGE-in Agriculture programme, the bank disbursed GH¢66.9 million last year, financing that supported 22,247 smallholder farmers, created 12,912 jobs and sustained a further 11,566. Women accounted for 62.4 percent of direct beneficiaries.
The bank’s GreenTech Innovation Challenge awarded GH¢1.02 million in grants to 16 climate-smart enterprises in 2025, forming part of a broader GH¢2 million funding commitment. Through the Orange Corners Innovation Fund, supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, GH¢9.83 million has been disbursed to more than 55 young entrepreneurs operating across agribusiness, technology, fashion and creative industries, generating more than 1,000 jobs.
A further GH¢550,000 in grants and concessionary financing has been channelled into Ghana’s creative economy through the Orange Inspire Creative Challenge.
Mr. Gyan acknowledged that such programmes remain modest relative to the scale of the country’s financing gap, but said they demonstrate that commercially viable models can be developed for sectors that struggle to satisfy traditional lending requirements.
“Grants, concessionary loans, and blended finance for green and creative enterprises are not charity. They are investments in the sectors that will define Ghana’s economic identity in the next decade. The returns may be slower. They are no less real,” he said.
Currently, the local financial sector framework currently provides limited incentives for banks deploying patient capital and blended finance structures, leaving institutions to absorb much of the risk associated with development-focused lending without corresponding regulatory recognition.
Mr. Gyan argued that the gains from economic stabilisation should now be translated into long-term productive investment capable of reshaping the structure of the economy.
“Ghana has done something genuinely hard. It came back from the edge. Now the question is what we build with the stability we have earned,” he said.
