“Cedi No Apicki, But Abochi Get The Dollar”- Former Finance Minister

Former Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam has waded into the challenges importers face in accessing foreign exchange.

Despite the strengthening of the cedi against major trading currencies, he said access has become problematic in recent times.

According to him, there has been an arbitrage between the Interbank market and forex bureaux, alongside a growing scarcity of foreign exchange.

“On the exchange rate situation, the Minister indicated that ‘cedi no apicki!’ The developments in the foreign exchange market under this administration are deeply troubling…Perhaps, the Minister should know that ‘Cedi no apicki, but Abochi get the Dollar’, as my brother Hon. Adongo once said.”

“The shortage of Dollars in the Banks has been so pronounced that importers have gone public to express their frustration about the situation.”

He said the Bank of Ghana has been intervening significantly in the FX market through auctions, bilateral sales, and other tools, despite denying it.

“It took the IMF to disclose that in Q1-2025 alone, the Bank injected over US$1.4 billion into the market. Yet these interventions remain ad hoc, opaque, and devoid of a rule-based framework. And this is why the IMF has cautioned the Bank about the sustainability of such a policy.”

Citing the IMF, Amin Adam said deepening the interbank FX market by reducing BoG’s footprint and allowing for greater exchange rate flexibility – including through the adoption of a formal internal FX intervention policy framework – should be a priority.

Source: https://opemsuo.com/author/hajara-fuseini/