Reports reaching Prime Business indicates that three institutions, GN Bank, Sahel Sahara Bank, and Premium Bank have concluded a merger deal following the central bank's directive for all banks to meet a minimum capital requirement of 400 million Ghana cedis.
 The three banks began talks about a proposed merger this year and will announce their final decision this July 2018.
The merger deal will be the first among a series of others to follow in an effort to meet the minimum capital requirement by the end of the year.
The Bank of Ghana is however yet to approve the deal although it has received the banks' proposal.
The implementation of the new Capital Requirement Directive is set to begin on July 1, 2018, however, banks will be expected to fully comply by January 1, 2019.
Background
Local banks in the country have appealed for the extension of the deadline in meeting the minimum capital requirement from December 2018 to 2022.
Though the banks admit to the idea of recapitalization, they argue that the period requested for them to comply is short.
In a letter to the President and signed by all the Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of the local banks, the local banks said they were in a better position to recapitalise up to GH¢170 million by the end of 2018, GH¢220 million by the end of 2019, GH¢280 million in 2020, GH¢340 million in 2021 and GH¢400 million in 2022
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