Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the Ghana Association of Banks, John Awuah, has revealed that most medical doctors who borrow from banks to travel abroad to work refuse to repay the loans despite the general perception that medical doctors are persons of high integrity.
John Awuah lamented that even though these medical doctors get gainfully employed abroad and could settle their loans, about 70% of them flatly refuse to honour their loan commitments.
“… Do you know what doctors are doing to the banking system? Particularly those who are offshoring their services, like migrating to other jurisdictions to work? They have bank accounts. They use their bank statements for personal loans. For personal loans, the banks won’t ask you what exactly you’re going to buy; it’s a personal loan.
They come to take like 120,000, 150, 000 and jump off and leave the loan hanging. Wherever they’re going, they’re working there. They’re earning and you would think that as medical doctors they would just say “I have a liability in Ghana which enabled me to demonstrate that I can fund my travel, so let me settle it.
About 70% of them are not paying. These are medical doctors, people we hold in high esteem,” he revealed in an interview with Joy News on Thursday, October 9, 2025 on non-performing loans.
Dr Awuah stated that steps are underway to get various embassies to crosscheck with banks before granting visas to doctors travelling abroad to ensure that the practice is addressed.
The issue of non-performing loans, when borrowers do not repay their loans as agreed upon, remains a major challenge to the banking sector, he noted.
