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,...

Barclays Bank Ghana now Absa. Mrs Abena Osei-Poku, Managing Director, Absa Ghana Limited, speaking at the launch of Absa Bank Ghana Barclays Bank Ghana on Monday officially traded off its identity from the country’s financial services industry when it transitioned to become Absa Bank Ghana Ltd, a member of the Absa Group Limited. The bank, which took over the 100-year-old African operations of Barclays Plc of the United Kingdom in July 2017, is expected to continue to connect the ambitions of its clients, the business community and Ghanaians with financial lending, services and opportunities through innovation. Launching At a ceremony in Accra yesterday to unveil the new-look Barclays as Absa Bank Ghana Ltd, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said Absa Bank would be operating in a much-improved economy, since Ghana now had a major transformation and modernisation agenda on the ground. He said the mess which was inherited by the government in the country’s financia...

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 ...

Ghana’s Cedi Is the Year’s Biggest Winner Against the U.S. Dollar. By Moses Mozart Dzawu February 3, 2020, 12:33 PM GMT Updated on February 3, 2020, 2:39 PM GMT Ghana’s cedi, the world’s best-performing currency against the dollar this year, extended its advance on Monday as investors await a Eurobond sale that would bolster the government’s coffers. The currency of the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer has strengthened 3.9% in 2020, the most among more than 140 currencies tracked by Bloomberg, a turnaround from last year, when it weakened 13%. The coronavirus outbreak and the recent lunar new year holiday in China has cut back travel and trade, reducing demand for foreign currency from Ghanaian importers, according to Nana Yaa Faakye, Head of Treasury at Republic Bank Ghana Ltd. The West African country is concluding a series of meetings with international bond investors Monday for a sale of as much as $3 billion in Eurobonds. Ghana's cedi ...