Economic experts, banking professionals, and industry associations are calling on the Government and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to roll out an aggressive public education campaign to support a successful rollout of the country’s non-interest banking.
They noted that misconceptions and low awareness levels, experienced at the initial stages of non-interest banking, often posed the greatest threat to the initiative’s success, citing the cases of countries like Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The calls come as Ghana receives institutional acceptance for non-interest banking, with one indigenous bank having applied for licence while four other banks were preparing to submit their applications.
Dr Daniel Anim-Prempeh, the Chief Economist, Public Initiative for Economic Development (PIED), encouraged collaborative efforts, spearheaded by the government and regulators to ensure businesses fully understood the terms, conditions, and purpose.
“The Central Bank must do a lot of education for businesses through their associations and chambers for them to appreciate the module,” Dr Anim-Prempeh said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.
He said public education should be held periodically for borrowers to understand that the loans received from the banks were strictly for capital injections into their businesses for further expansion and not for personal consumption.
Sustainability of the non-interest banking depended entirely on borrowers understanding their obligation to repay, so that the capital could be recycled for the benefit of other enterprises, he said.
“Without this discipline the transformative potential of the model would be undermined before it could take root,” Dr Anim-Prempeh, also a legal practitioner, cautioned, underscoring the need for public education.
Dr Issahaku Yakubu, Manager for Business and Commercial Banking at Stanbic Bank Ghana, also identified consumer behaviour and public perception as among the most formidable obstacles facing the adoption of non-interest banking in an earlier publication.
He pointed to low levels of knowledge, misconceptions, particularly about the religious dimensions of the product, and concerns about Sharia compliance as key barriers, as many viewed it as a vehicle for promoting Islam.
“In European countries where non-interest banking has been successfully introduced, the establishment of Islamic financial institutions has not led to a single documented case of Christians converting to Islam as a consequence,” he said.
Dr Yakubu acknowledged that with most of Ghana’s population being Christians, religious sentiments would need to be carefully navigated through intensified and continuous public education.
He, therefore, urged the Government and Central Bank to organise structured consumer education roadshows designed to highlight the objective, commercially attractive benefits of non-interest banking, shifting the public conversation towards economic opportunity.
The Ghana Association of Banks, through research, also identified public awareness as a critical success factor for Ghana’s non-interest banking implementation, calling for targeted consumer education.
Emphasising collaboration, the Association called on governments, financial institutions, and Islamic scholars to join forces in educating the public about the principles, misconceptions, and benefits of non-interest banking.
The study recommended the use of traditional media, social media, and other communication platforms to reach the broadest possible audience, especially in areas where the need for clear, credible messaging was acute.
GNA
