Demand for foreign exchange or dollars will continue to outstrip supply, though the $750 million loan facility from Afreximbank continues to improve the FX supply on the market.

According to a Weekly Currency Report by Databank Research, the cedi is also expected to benefit from the COCOBOD syndicated loan, with officials currently on a roadshow to raise $1.3 billion for the 2022/2023 cocoa crop season.

It explained that “strong corporate and offshore investor demand continue to drive the cedi depreciation against the US dollar”

Cedi’s performance last week

The cedi posted a mixed performance on the Bank of Ghana reference rate and forex bureau markets, shedding 0.94% week-on-week vs the US dollar, 0.55% week-on-week vs. euro and 0.67% week-on-week vs British pound on the BoG reference rate.

On the forex bureau market, the local unit lost 0.75% week-on-week against the US dollar with a bid/offer quote of ¢9.98/10.20, bringing its year-to-date loss to 35.68%.

Databank Research said “we expect demand for FX (foreign exchange) to continue to outstrip supply, though the US$750 million loan facility from Afreximbank will improve FX supply on the market. Also, the cedi is expected to benefit from the COCOBOD syndicated loan, with officials currently on a roadshow to raise $1.3 billion for the 2022/2023 cocoa crop season”.

The cedi as of the end of last week (August 26, 2022) had lost about 35% in value to the dollar.

Cedi starts week on a good note

However, it started this week (August 29-September 1, 2022) on a good note recording about 0.90% appreciation to the dollar.

It also appreciated against the euro (0.40%) and pound (0.13%) respectively.