Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
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KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE OF DISTANT LEARNING COMPETITION IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY OF GHANA BY BEDFORD AKUFFO-DUAH A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE INSTITUTE OF DISTANCELEARNING, KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, KUMASI, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE COMMONWEALTH EXECUTIVE MASTERS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (CEMBA) DEGREE © JUNE 2011 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this submission is my own work towards the Commonwealth Executive Masters of Business Administration (CEMBA) and that, to the best of my knowledge, neither contains materials previously published by another person nor materials which has been accepted for the award of any other degree of the university, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. Bedford Akuffo-Duah ……………………… (Student) Signature Date Certify by: Dr. Bernard Tetteh-Dumanya ……………………… (Supervisor) Signature Date Prof Isaac Kwame Dontwi ………………………. (Dean of Institute of Distant Learning) Signature 2 DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my wife, Linda Maame Andrews, and children, Nana Kofi Akuffo-Duah, Ohene Akuffo-Duah and Mama Akuffo-Duah with sincere love and profound gratitude. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to the following for their assistance and contribution towards the success of this work. First thanks go to my supervisor, Dr. Tetteh Dumanya for his guidance, supervision and direction. Secondly to Mr. Samuel Affum, Group Head Tema Zone- Intercontinental Bank Ghana Limited for providing very essential information that facilitated this study. Also to my CEMBA year mates and study group members. To all I say God richly bless you. 4 ABSTRACT Competition in the banking sector in Ghana seeks to look at the increased number of banks over the past six years, the paradigm that has occurred in bringing banking to a new level which should benefit the population and the economy. The study examined banking sector competition in Ghana as an objective. The increase in the number of banks in the Ghanaian banking industry and the liberalisation of the financial market has significant implications for the level of competition as well as the welfare of the customers in the banking sector. This is due to the fact that after the liberalization of the financial market for which banking forms part, only a few of the population can be said to be actively conducting business with the banks and the majority still unbanked. It is essential to tackle a problem like this by first looking at the level of competition and the gap it has created. The Herfindahl –Hirschman Index, along with the accompanying structural theories, were used to analyse changes in the level of concentration of the various banks and competition in the industry over the period of five years [2003 – 2008] which are having impact on the businesses and the economy as a whole as well as . It was found that the structural model of competition indicate a significant positive impact of financial liberalization on bank competition. Hence, there is a high level of competition in the banking sector of the Ghanaian economy which is skewed to benefit a minority of the population. It was generally recommended that Banks should come out innovative with products to attract a larger population of the unbanked into the market. 5 TABLE OF CONTENT CERTIFICATION I DEDICATION II ACKNOWLEDGEMENT III ABSTRACT IV TABLE OF CONTENT V LIST OF TABLES IX CHAPTER ONE 1.0 Background of the Study 1 1.1 Statement of the Research Problem 4 1.2 Objective of the Research 5 1.3 Specific Research Questions 5 1.4 Significance of the Study 6 1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study 6 1.6 Organisation of the Study 7 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction 8 2.1 Developments in the Banking Industry 8 2.2 The Relationship between Businesses & the Ghanaian Banking Sector in the Past 11 2.3 The New Order in the Ghanaian Banking Industry 13 6 2.4 Deregulation and Open-up to Foreign Competition 15 2.5 Competition in the Banking Sector 16 2.6 Imperatives for Banking Sector Competition 17 2.7 Service Quality and Banking Competition 18 2.8 Technology and Service Delivery and Banking Competition 19 2.9 Changes in Corporate Behaviour 20 2.10 Corporate Profile of Some New Banks 22 2.10.1 Zenith Bank Limited 22 2.10.2 United Bank for Africa [UBA] 23 2.10.3 Guaranty Trust Bank Limited 23 2.10.4 Intercontinental Bank Ghana Limited 25 2.10.5 Access Bank Limited 26 2.11 Conclusion 27 CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 29 3.0 Introduction 29 3.1 Research Design 29 3.1.1 Research Instrument 30 3.1.2 Study Population 30 3.1.3 Study Sample 31 3.1.4 Sampling Technique 31 3.2 Data Types/Sources 32 3.3 Data Analysis 32 3.4 Limitations of the Methodology 32 7 CHAPTER FOUR DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 4.0 Introduction 34 4.1 The Degree and Extent of Competition in the Banking Industry in Ghana 34 4.1.1 Competition in the Banking 34 4.1.2 Classification of Banks in the Ghanaian Banking Industry 35 4.1.3 Banking and Financial Services 36 4.1.4 Banking Competition through Process Improvement, Product and Service Quality 37 4.1.5 Customers and Service Delivery 37 4.1.6 Physical Evidence of Service Delivery 37 4.1.7 Process of Service Delivery 38 4.1.8 Summaries of Financial Data 38 4.2 The Basis of the Competition 39 4.2.1 Effects of Non-Ghanaian Bank’s Entry on Financial Intermediation 39 4.3 The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index 40 4.3.1 Share of Industry Deposits 40 4.3.2 Share of Industry Net Advances 41 4.3.3 Share of Industry Total Assets 42 4.3.4 Share of Industry Operating Assets 43 4.3.5 Share of Industry Total Operating Income 44 4.3.6 Share of Industry Profit before Taxes 45 4.4 Further Competitive Analysis Including 2009 45 4.5 Categorisation of the Banking League 47 8 4.6 Discussion of Findings 51 CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.0 Introduction 53 5.1 Summary of Findings 53 5.2 Conclusions 54 5.3 Recommendations 55 References 57 Appendix 59 9 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Classification of Banks in Ghana 37 Table 2: Share of Industry Deposits 59 Table 3: Share of Industry Net Advances 60 Table 4: Share of Industry Total Assets 61 Table 5: Share of Industry Operating Assets 62 Table 6: Share of Industry Total Operating Income 64 Table 7: Share of Industry Profit before Taxes 65 10 CHAPTER ONE 1.0 Background to the Study Financial institutions are an establishment that focuses on dealing with financial transactions, such as investments, loans and deposits. Conventionally, financial institutions are composed of organizations such as banks, trust companies, insurance companies and investment dealers. Almost everyone deals with a financial institution on a regular basis. Everything from depositing money to taking out loans and exchange currencies must be done through financial institutions [Source: WEB, Google]. Banks may be seen as a subset of the financial institutions, which are retailers of financial securities: they buy the securities issued by borrowers and they sell them to lenders. In view of varied and complex operations of a bank, an operational definition of a bank may be provided as “a bank is an institution whose current operations consist of granting loans and receiving deposits from the public” (Banking Act, 2004 Act 673). Definition of “Banking” as per the Banking Law says-”banking” means the accepting, for the purpose of lending or investment, of deposits of money from the public, repayable on demand or otherwise, and withdraw able by cheque, draft, order or otherwise”. A close examination of banking theories provides insights into why banks exist in the economy. However, over the recent past, financial innovation has greatly changed the business of banking. Instead of just accepting deposits and making loans the old-fashioned way, banks nowadays are 11 increasingly active in lending without putting loans on their balance sheets, through either securitization of their asset portfolio or outright loan sales (bonds/debts) (Murthy and Taru, 2008). Banks also are shifting from interest-based revenues towards fee-based activities, including lines of credit and many types of credit guarantees. Accompanying these innovations is the significant increase in the nature and level of competition. In the case of Ghana, this dynamics in the banking sector particularly followed the liberalization of the financial sector following the implementation of the various financial sector reforms recommended by the IMF and the World Bank. This financial sector liberalization resulted in the increase in the number of banks locally and the influx of foreign banks with the majority coming from Nigeria. These developments have resulted in considerable competition in the Ghanaian banking sector. Banking sector competition is expected to provide welfare gains by reducing monopoly rents and cost inefficiencies. A higher degree of banking competition should result in a lower monopoly power of banks, and therefore a decrease in banking prices. Since investment is particularly sensitive to a decrease in commercial interest rates, a reduction of monopoly rents should consequently impact positively on investment and economic growth. These expected gains are a particularly major issue for countries in which bank credit represents the largest source of external finance for companies (Reininger et al., 2002). Heightened competition should also encourage banks to reduce their operating costs, i.e. their cost inefficiencies (e.g. Fries and Taci, 2005), although, some studies emphasize some potential 12 negative effects of growing banking competition through excessive risk-taking by banks, which may hamper financial stability (Allen and Gale, 2004; Carletti and Hartmann, 2002).