Due to a $77 million impairment in Ghana, Guaranty Trust Holding Co., the largest bank by market value in Nigeria, has announced steps to scale back its lending and bond trading there.
To increase lending by 15% this year, the bank will instead concentrate on other high-yielding African markets.
With this change, the company would be able to improve its profit before taxes by 31% from 214.2 billion naira in 2022.
In Ghana, where GTBank is owned and operated by Guaranty Trust, the majority of the state debt is now being restructured, costing banking institutions money. According to sources, the bank is having difficulties in Ghana, its second-largest market, as a result of the nation's decision to restructure the majority of its $49 billion in public debt.
Financial institutions suffered losses when Ghana swapped notes worth 87.8 billion cedis that paid an average of 19% for bonds that returned as little as 8.35%. The issue is still being discussed with the government by a number of foreign creditors.
While competing lender Zenith Bank put aside 123.4 billion naira to account for the restructuring, the bank has 167.6 billion naira in debt securities in Ghana.
