Cedi appreciates 6.4% against dollar. The Ghana cedi has maintained its dominance against its major trading partners, especially the US dollar, as market updates from the First National Bank show there has been a more than 6 percent appreciation of the local currency since beginning of the year. From the report, since January 2020 the cedi has appreciated by 6.4 percent against the US dollar – a feat that has never been achieved in recent years. For example, at beginning of this year (January), the cedi was trading averagely at GH¢5.534 to US$1. However, as of Thursday February 20, 2020, it traded averagely at GH¢5.282 to US$1. Meanwhile, in January 2019 alone, the cedi had depreciated close to 3 percent against the dollar, and by 13.4 percent at the end of 2019. The cedi, according the South African-based bank, is tipped to perform even better considering the BoG’s new FX auction strategy that seeks to pump some US$240million into the forex market during the first quarter,...

Ghana earns $378 million from raw cashew nuts exports. Ghana earned $378 million from the sale of 110 tonnes of raw cashew nuts in 2018. The amount represented 43 per cent of the total revenue obtained from non-traditional export commodities in the country. The Director of Crop Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr Seth Osei-Akoto, announced this at the opening of a one-week technical upscaling development training programme on cashew value chain promotion in Sunyani yesterday. Seventy-two participants, made up of tutors from agriculture training institutions in Ghana are taking part in the training programme to ensure that they acquire the right knowledge in order to pass it on to potential trainees who enrol in their institutions. The training was organised by Competitive Cashew Initiative (GIZ/ComCashew), a non-governmental organisation, in collaboration with the Ghana Skills Development Initiative (GSDI), with support from the MoFA. Challenges ...