The cedi has, since the start of the year, seen a notable appreciation following a sharp depreciation the year before.

In 2024, it lost about 24–25% of its value against major trading currencies, particularly the dollar.However, it was stabilised following the assumption of power by the Mahame-led administration when the Bank of Ghana intervened by pumping some dollars into the market.

In March and April 2025, the Bank of Ghana injected over $750 million into the market, which earned the cedi a ranking as the best-performing currency against the dollar according to Bloomberg at the time.

However, by July 2025, the BoG started reducing the frequency and amount of the intervention to prevent an overvalued exchange rate, as well as caution from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the government’s excessive support, urging a more market-driven approach, and a balance in the sustainability of the cedi.

Consequently, the value of the cedi began to decline. Speaking at the Presidential Media Encounter at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, President John Mahama announced that the Bank of Ghana had completely withdrawn its intervention from the market, attributing the cedi’s devaluation to this move.

He said the intervention made dollars easily accessible and cheaper, leading to an influx of imports contributing to the cedi’s depreciation.

“And so yes, Bank of Ghana has been intervening in the forex market, but they’ve withdrawn. And what happened was that, because of the rapid appreciation in the value of the cedi, we saw an exponential increase in imports, because then people could buy cheaper dollars, and so they could import more, which is a natural economic phenomenon, ” he explained.

While the cedi appreciation was good news for importers, exporters, on the other hand, were being hurt by a stronger cedi.

"But on the other side, exporters are not happy, because they get fewer cedis for what they export, ” President Mahama added.

In light of this, he assured that measures were underway to ensure that both exporters and importers break even as far as the value of the cedi is concerned.

“And so every country tries to find out a balance where exporters can do good business and importers are not overburdened by high Forex, eh, rates? Where that lie? I don’t know. I’m not a central bank, but the cedi is making an adjustment, and I believe that it will settle at a certain rate, and we will make sure that any depreciation that occurs in the value of the cedi is within a margin of about 5% per annum. That is what we target,” he mentioned.

He continued, “There was one occasion where I said people were asking whether it would go below GH¢10, and I said, it is dropping, but it will find its true value. It was undervalued at ¢16, and it probably is overvalued at 10, but somewhere between there we have the real value of the cedi.”

Though the government decided to withdraw from market intervention, President Mahama highlighted the volatility of the cedi, citing how it makes planning difficult, particularly for importers as well.

“When you have steep depreciation of about like we had in 2024, 25% depreciation in the currency in the first half of the year, it makes planning difficult,” adding that the current depreciation of the cedi could be blamed on the massive reduction in remittances. When the cedi appreciated, there was a 50% decline in remittance inflows, according to Bank of Ghana Governor Dr. Johnson Asiama.

“It’s also seen that it coincided with a period where we saw a reduction of 50% in remittances, because citizens in the diaspora were taken aback by the rapid appreciation of the cedi.

"And so if somebody was building a house, if he was going to send $100,000, it meant that he was losing a certain percentage of that $100,000 and most of them would decide to adopt a wait-and-see attitude and say, Oh no, ask for cedis. It’s not possible that the cedi can regain its value to that extent.

"By all means, it will go up again, so I’ll hold back my remittance until the cedi goes back up. So we saw a 50% reduction,” he listed.

Some other factors affecting the value of the cedi are forex leakages and non-repatriation of funds.

“There were also some other factors. Some money transfer companies were collecting dollars abroad and not repatriating them.

"There were other cases where people applied through the commercial banks for foreign exchange to cover imports, and those monies are transferred to pay for imports, but the imports never came into Ghana.”“And we’ve studied for a period of four years. And every year over the period of four years, about $42 billion was taken out of this country without the corresponding imports coming into the country.

"And so we started sanctioning some banks, and soon will start interrogating some individuals who ostensibly took money out against imports, but never brought those imports.”

President Mahama stressed that such abuses threaten the economy.“We want to know what happened and if there was wrongdoing, to sanction whoever it is. While we work to stabilise our economy and improve the value of our currency, we must protect that currency, because a good, strong cedi is good for all of us.

"But when that happens, some people try to take advantage of it, and I think that we should all condemn anything like that,” he added.According to data from the Bank of Ghana, which was shared on 23rd August, the Ghana cedi had seen a five per cent (5%) depreciation.

Between August 23 and August 28, the Ghanaian cedi depreciated from GH¢10.43 to around GH¢11.00 per US dollar.The sharpest movement was between August 23 and 24, where the cedi depreciated from GH¢10.43 to GH¢10.90. The dollar was selling at GH¢10.43 on August 23, GH¢10.90 on August 24, and between August 25 and 27, it staggered between GH¢10.85 and GH¢11.00.

As of August 28, it had crossed GH¢11 cedis, sparking major concerns. On Dr. Johnson Asiama’s part, the current depreciation is a result of the temporary shortage of foreign exchange supply in the market, resulting from the effects of the currency appreciation coupled with other phenomena that, “…we are beginning to see those phenomena at play. Imports become a lot cheaper, so it's just natural to begin to see pressure build up on the currency”.

He said there is no need for panic as the economic indicators are obviously strong, giving signs of a cedi recovery soon enough. Dr Asiamah attributed the depreciating cedi to the decline in remittance inflows, sharp appreciation of the cedi and limited interbank trading.

”…what is happening is just because of the sharp appreciation, we are beginning to have some cash flow problems, specifically because we have seen some decline in terms of remittance inflows. Also, imports become a lot cheaper, so it's just natural to begin to see pressure build up on the currency

“Over the last two months, we have also seen very limited interbank trading, he stated.”