President John Dramani Mahama has said his government will make sure that any depreciation that occurs in the Cedi is within a margin of about 5% per annum.
According to John Mahama, the recent currency fluctuations are part of a natural adjustment process and not a sign of renewed instability.
Speaking at his maiden media encounter on Wednesday, September 10, John Mahama stated, “I believe that it is about stopping the rapid depreciation of the currency. 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. And so yes, Bank of Ghana, BoG, has been intervening in the forex market, but they’ve withdrawn,” he said.
Mahama added, “The Cedi is making an adjustment and I believe that it will settle at a certain rate and we’ll make sure that any depreciation that occurs in the value of the Cedi is within a margin of about 5% per annum”.
President John Mahama also disclosed that the Bank of Ghana(BoG) has withdrawn its interventions in the foreign exchange market.
According to John Mahama, the move is to find the true value of the Ghanaian cedi against major trading currencies.
He added, “And so yes, Bank of Ghana has been intervening in the forex market, but they’ve withdrawn.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.
“But on the other side, exporters are not happy, because they get fewer cedis for what they export.”
John Mahama added that Ghana must strike a delicate balance between protecting exporters and importers.
He added, “And so every country tries to find out a balance where exporters are able to do good business and importers are not overburdened by high Forex, eh, rates? Where that lies? I don’t know. I’m not a central bank, but the cedis 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 cedis is within a margin of about 5% per annum. That is what we we target.”
President Mahama recalled, “There was one occasion where I said people were asking whether it will go below ¢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.”
He connected part of the challenge to reduced inflows from abroad.
“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.”
“There were also some other factors. Some money transfer companies were collecting dollars abroad and not repatriating them.
He also revealed that investigations had uncovered disturbing practices.
President Mahama detailed, “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.”
He further emphasised the abuses that 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”, Mahama added.
Meanwhile, Dr Johnson Asiama, the governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has said the current depreciation of the cedi is just a short-term blip and assured that the situation will normalise soon.
Dr Johnson Asiama, in an interview with JOY BUSINESS, stated, “The Bank of Ghana operates a managed floating system in terms of framework; therefore, these blips will happen, but the assurance is that this is a short-term issue and the challenges are being addressed.”
He further added that the Central Bank has adequate reserves to support the market.
The BoG governor added, “Let me be clear, we are not running out of dollars, adding that the gap between market rates and official rates are being driven by bad market practices”.
“We have also taken measures to ensure that liquidity improves in the market, together with getting the interbank market to function adequately,” Dr Asiama stated.
Dr Johnson Asiama further detailed, “The interbank market is supposed to take care of itself in terms of inflows from trade and remittance. Offshoring Foreign Exchange instead of bringing it home, and we have identified these loopholes and are shutting them down”
“Some payment service providers have experimented with crypto and offshore settlement models. While innovation is welcomed, such practices must not weaken the cedi, and we will move to regulate these activities within the law,” the governor has affirmed.
Dr Johnson Asiama revealed that the current macroeconomic situation is sound and solid, which should have an impact on the cedi’s fortunes going forward.
The Governor added, “We should remember that Ghana is under an IMF programme, and we are watching our reserves carefully, especially when it comes to our market interventions.”
“So we can be assured that as far as the IMF programme is concerned and Ghana reserves, we are okay,” Dr Asiama established.
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We will make sure that any depreciation that occurs in the Cedi is within a target of about 5% per annum – President Mahama#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/JRfnOaG4QE
— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) September 10, 2025