Credit bureau enquiries increase by 46.5% in 2023 – Bank of Ghana report

Data from the Bank of Ghana shows that financial institutions and authorised users conducted an average of 2,114,636 monthly enquiries in 2023, marking a 46.5% increase from the 1,443,000 average monthly enquiries in 2022.

The Bank of Ghana attributed the rise to the growing integration of credit reports in credit management processes across institutions. In total, searches on credit bureau databases increased by 46.5%, from 9,379,499 in 2022 to 13,745,137 in 2023. The rise in searches is largely due to the use of credit reports in the provision of digital loans by lenders.

Enquiries on credit bureau databases can return either a “Hit” or “No Hit.” A “Hit” means information, either demographic or both demographic and financial, is available on the searched individual or institution. In 2023, 72.0% of searches returned a “Hit,” down from 85.0% in 2022. This decline was expected due to a surge in digital loan applications, with 64.0% of “No Hit” searches attributed to first-time borrowers, accounting for 2,465,396 out of 3,863,537 total “No Hit” searches.