(Ecofin Agency) - At about two weeks to the deadline, the Ghanaian subsidiary of the French banking group Société Générale announced that it has reached the minimum capital requirement of GH₵400 million (about $82 million) required by the central bank.

Société Générale Ghana explained that its shareholders authorised the increase of its capital by adding GH₵97 million from the bank’s revenues to the equity.

Late 2017, Central Bank of Ghana issued a requirement according to which the minimum capital requirement for banks should be GH₵400 million by December 31, 2018, in order to consolidate those banks' equity and improve their capacities to fund the economy.

In May 2018, ten Ghanaian banks owned by local investors announced that they could not meet the minimum capital requirement by the stated deadline. Those banks among which there were Prudential Bank, Royal Bank and Unibank sent a petition to the Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo to ask him to invite the Central bank to extend the deadline by four years to let them raise their equity from GH₵120 million to GH₵400 million.  

Meanwhile, subsidiaries of foreign groups operating in the country have announced that they were ready to meet the new requirement by the specified deadline.