The Bank of Ghana’s "No Objection" moves a Moroccan banking group a step closer to taking control of one of Ghana’s oldest listed banks, with SSNIT also raising its stake.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG), the country's central bank and banking regulator, has issued a "No Objection" to the sale of Société Générale Ghana to Attijariwafa Bank, a pan-African banking group headquartered in Morocco.
The clearance is one of the main regulatory hurdles in the deal and brings the Moroccan group close to becoming the majority shareholder of a bank that has been part of Ghana's financial landscape for five decades.
What the deal involves
France's Société Générale Group announced on 1 October 2026 that it had agreed to sell its entire 60.22 percent controlling stake in its Ghanaian subsidiary.
Attijariwafa Bank is to take 55.22 percent. The remaining 5 percent goes to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ghana's public pension fund, which already owns shares in the bank. That purchase lifts SSNIT's holding from 19.36 percent to 24.36 percent.
Once the transaction closes, Attijariwafa Bank takes over the bank's operations, customer accounts and staff. Société Générale Ghana currently runs 40 branches and outlets nationwide.
Why the regulator agreed
The Ghana Report, citing people familiar with the regulatory process, reports that the central bank weighed Attijariwafa Bank's financial strength and what a large international group entering the market would mean for competition among Ghana's commercial banks.
The Moroccan group's balance sheet is seen as giving it room to take part in bigger financing deals in Ghana. No shareholder, including Ghanaian shareholders, is reported to have objected to the sale.
Discussions around the deal have also touched on protecting jobs at the bank, and there are indications that some senior management roles will continue to be held by Ghanaians.
What happens next
The deal is not finished. Société Générale Ghana is listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, so the transfer of shares still needs approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulator for capital markets. Once those approvals come through, the takeover can be completed.
A bank with deep Ghanaian roots
The institution started on 7 February 1975 as Security Guarantee Trust Limited, wholly owned by SSNIT. It was renamed Social Security Bank in 1976, received its banking licence that September and opened its doors to the public in January 1977.
After merging with the National Savings & Credit Bank in 1994, it sold 30 percent of its shares to the public in 1995 and listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange in October that year.
Control changed hands several times. An international consortium took 52 percent in 1997, and the name became SSB Bank in 1998. Société Générale bought a controlling 46.7 percent stake in 2003, lifted it to 51 percent the same year, and the bank became SG-SSB in 2004. It was renamed Société Générale Ghana in 2013. Successive rights issues pushed the French group's stake up to the 60.22 percent now being sold.
