The Bank of Ghana says the recent decline in the value of the U.S. dollar has played a major role in supporting the Ghana Cedi, helping to steady the local currency despite continued challenges in the foreign exchange market.

According to the Central Bank, the U.S. dollar index fell by about 8 percent between January and August 2025. This was largely due to a slowdown in the American labour market and growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would begin cutting interest rates.

In its September 2025 Monetary Policy Report, the Bank explained that the weaker dollar, along with the increasing global use of alternative currencies like the Chinese Yuan for trade and commodity payments, contributed to the strengthening of several emerging market currencies — including Ghana’s cedi.

However, the local currency still faced headwinds during the period, mainly from high import demand and reduced foreign exchange supply. These challenges were linked to issues in the Gold-for-Forex programme and a dip in remittance inflows.

Despite these pressures, the Cedi recorded notable gains — appreciating by 28.95 percent against the U.S. dollar, 19.49 percent against the British pound, and 14.08 percent against the euro on a year-to-date basis. This marks a sharp turnaround from the significant losses seen during the same period in 2024.

The Bank of Ghana noted that the Cedi’s short-term stability will rely on maintaining high gold prices, improving forex liquidity through new directives to mining companies, and ensuring continued fiscal discipline.

Additionally, positive investor confidence from the recent IMF programme reviews and shifts in U.S. monetary policy are expected to further influence the Cedi’s outlook in the coming months.

The World Bank has cautioned Ghana against making a hasty return to the Eurobond market, warning that such a move would signal to international investors that the country is taking the “easy way out.”

According to the Bank, Ghana’s credibility cannot be restored through fresh borrowing but only through strict fiscal discipline, transparency, and politically difficult reforms.

“The new administration should refrain from a hasty return to the Eurobond market, which international investors would interpret as taking the easy way out,” the report stated. “Instead, the government must strengthen fiscal and growth fundamentals and convince the private sector that public debt is on a sustainable path.”

The Bank emphasized that Ghana’s recovery hinges on strict adherence to the Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy and full transparency of the Annual Borrowing Plan. It advised the government to seize the post-election period to roll out tough reforms and rebuild trust with citizens and investors.

Ghana’s economic challenges, the report noted, are not new. Over the past 68 years, the country has entered 17 IMF programmes, spending nearly 40 of those years under active Fund support. The World Bank stressed that the 2022 economic crisis was not caused by COVID-19 or the Russia-Ukraine war, but by years of fiscal indiscipline, excessive borrowing, and weak financial management. Easy access to Eurobonds in the past decade, it said, delayed critical reforms and left the economy vulnerable.

Even after recent debt restructuring and IMF support, the Bank cautioned that Ghana is still not out of danger. “Reestablishing credibility will take time, but the process can start immediately,” it said, urging decisive action to break the country’s recurring cycle of boom and bust.

President John Mahama has already aligned with this stance, saying he does not support a quick return to international capital markets. “We have survived without borrowing from the capital markets. As President, I would not favour a quick return. We must consolidate the economy before seeking external financing,” he said.

The World Bank recommended bold reforms, including enforcing fiscal rules, broadening the tax base, and overhauling state-owned enterprises, especially in the energy and cocoa sectors. Without these steps, it warned, Ghana risks once again being locked out of global markets and trapped in its historical cycle of crisis and bailouts.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has begun a one-month suspension of the remittance partnerships of five Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) and the Foreign Exchange Trading Licence of United Bank for Africa (UBA Ghana).

The decision, announced in a statement dated September 4, 2025, took effect on Thursday, September 18, 2025. The move forms part of the central bank’s ongoing efforts to sanitize the remittance sector and enforce strict regulatory compliance.

The suspension impacts five MTOs—Taptap Send, Top Connect, Remit Choice, Send App, and Afriex—over their involvement in unauthorised remittance transactions with Payment Service Providers (PSPs) through UBA Ghana as their settlement bank.

According to the BoG, the affected MTOs may only resume operations once their partner PSPs or banks reapply for approval after the suspension period.

UBA Ghana’s one-month suspension follows multiple breaches of foreign exchange market regulations, including violations of the Updated Guidelines for Inward Remittance Services by PSPs (2023), as amended by the Bank of Ghana.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lauded the central bank’s latest enforcement measures, describing them as an important step toward reinforcing the cedi’s role as the sole legal tender while enhancing transparency and stability in Ghana’s foreign exchange market.