Ghana wants your savings, not just your transfers
The Bank of Ghana's new diaspora strategy targets a first-quarter 2027 rollout. What it could offer, and what to check before moving a pound.
By Ernest · 9 October 2026
For years the arrangement was simple. You send money home, family spends it, everyone carries on. The Bank of Ghana now wants a second kind of relationship with the diaspora: one where part of that money stays in Ghana as savings and investment.
On 6 October 2026, the Governor, Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, told the heads of commercial banks at the Bank Square in Accra that a National Remittance and Diaspora Savings Strategy has formally launched. It is being developed jointly with the Ministry of Finance, with a nine-month design period and full implementation targeted for the first quarter of 2027. Banks, he said, will be expected to help shape and run it. [1]
That is an announcement, not a product. Nothing is on sale yet, and the terms are still being written. But the direction matters if you send money home, and the details will matter more when they arrive.
Why the central bank cares this much
The numbers explain the attention. Ghana recorded roughly $4.6 billion in remittances in 2024. By the end of 2025 the figure was close to $7.8 billion, about six per cent of GDP and more than the country receives in foreign direct investment. In the first half of 2026 alone, inflows were about $3.65 billion. [2][3]
Most of that money arrives through basic transfer channels and is spent. The Governor's stated goal is a shift from consumption-driven remittances to investment-oriented diaspora capital: he has said the diaspora should be treated as domestic investors abroad, not external senders. [2]
There is a gap in his way. A Bank of Ghana survey of the banking industry found that banks currently have few dedicated, off-the-shelf investment products designed for the diaspora, and in August the Governor publicly urged them to build bank-led investment products, mobile-money solutions and digital remittance platforms. [3]
What might be in it for you
Nothing is final, but the Governor has named the directions being explored, so we know what to watch for: [2]
- Diaspora bonds and structured investment vehicles, developed with government agencies. You lend to Ghana for a fixed return, the way countries including India, Kenya, the Philippines and Mexico have done before.
- Foreign-currency investment products through supervised institutions. For a saver in the UK or Ireland this is the potentially significant one: it could mean investing in Ghana while holding pounds or dollars, without taking on cedi exchange-rate risk yourself.
- Cheaper, faster transfers, through fintech partnerships the Bank says it wants to use to cut remittance costs and settlement friction.
Each of these is a direction, not a promise. The strategy that exists today is a launch announcement and a design window.
The questions to ask before you move a pound
When the real products appear, the marketing will be warm. These are the colder questions that decide whether any of them deserve your money.
What exactly is it, and who stands behind it? A government bond is a loan to the state. A bank deposit is a claim on a bank. A mobile-money product is something else again. They carry different risks, and a product launched under a government strategy is not automatically guaranteed by the government.
What currency is it in? A cedi product pays you in cedis, and the exchange rate cuts both ways: the cedi's 2025 recovery made Ghanaian assets more valuable in dollar terms, and this year's slide did the opposite. A foreign-currency product removes that risk for you, but ask whose books it lands on instead.
What protects the money if the provider fails? Ask who supervises the product and what compensation scheme, if any, covers it. An honest provider answers this in writing.
How do you get the money out? Lock-in periods, early-exit penalties and the practical ease of moving returns back to a UK or Irish account matter more than the headline rate.
What is the tax position? Interest earned in Ghana can be taxable in Ghana, and as a UK or Irish resident your worldwide income can matter at home too. Check both sides before the yield impresses you.
What happens next
The design window runs for nine months, the banks have been told to help build it, and the target for full implementation is the first quarter of 2027. [1] Targets like this can slip. What will not slip is your own rule: do not move savings on the strength of an announcement. When instruments appear with names, rates, terms and a named supervisor, that is the day to compare them against what your money already earns and costs where you live. We will read the small print when it exists.
Sources and data note
Prepared 9 October 2026. Remittance figures are Bank of Ghana numbers as reported in the sources below; the 2025 total and first-half 2026 figure are rounded. This article is information, not financial advice.
[1] Radio Gold, BoG targets first-quarter 2027 rollout (6 October 2026)
[2] Bank of Ghana, Governor's remarks at the Maiden Diaspora Roundtable (19 April 2026, PDF)
[3] Citi Newsroom, BoG urges banks to develop investment products (13 August 2026)
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