The Ghana cedi celebrates its 60th birthday this week standing at approximately GHS 10.8 to the US dollar, its strongest position in over a year and a remarkable recovery from the depths of late 2024 when it hit a record low of GHS 15.99. But as the nation marks this milestone with commemorative events and renewed patriotic fervor, a nagging question persists: will the gains hold?
Born in July 1965 as a symbol of post-independence pride and economic sovereignty, the cedi has survived military coups, structural adjustments, hyperinflation, and global shocks. It’s weathered more storms than most currencies its age, yet stability has remained frustratingly elusive. Bank of Ghana Governor Dr. Johnson Asiama announced at Tuesday’s Cedi@60 launch that the currency has appreciated 37.4 percent year to date as of October 17, making it the best performing currency in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2025 according to World Bank data.
That’s an extraordinary turnaround. Over the past 12 months, the cedi has strengthened by more than 32 percent, defying predictions from analysts who expected continued weakness. Businesses relying on imported inputs are breathing easier, inflation has dropped significantly, and investor confidence is returning. These aren’t small achievements for an economy that seemed on the brink just months ago.
Yet the cedi’s history teaches caution. When it replaced the Ghana pound in 1965, it traded close to ¢2.4 to £1, making it one of Africa’s strongest currencies. The honeymoon didn’t last. Economic shocks in the 1970s and 1980s, coupled with inflation and fiscal imbalances, sent the currency tumbling. By the mid-1980s, structural adjustment programmes forced repeated devaluations, and by the late 1990s, the old cedi had lost virtually all its purchasing power, with one US dollar exchanging for nearly ¢10,000.
That crisis prompted the 2007 redenomination, which knocked four zeros off the old notes and introduced the new Ghana cedi. At launch, GHS 1 was roughly equal to USD 1, a psychological reboot meant to restore confidence. The new cedi began strong, trading between GHS 0.9 and 1.5 per USD from 2007 to 2011. But familiar patterns emerged. By 2016, it had slipped to about GHS 4.3 per USD, a 76 percent depreciation in under a decade.
The 2020s brought fresh turbulence. Ghana’s debt distress and inflationary pressures in 2022 triggered another collapse, pushing the rate past GHS 14 per USD. By October 2024, it hit that all-time low of GHS 15.99. Then came what many are calling a miracle recovery. Through tight monetary policy, International Monetary Fund (IMF) inflows, and Bank of Ghana interventions, the cedi staged one of its fastest recoveries in modern times.
Governor Asiama attributes these gains to coordinated, difficult but necessary policy actions under President John Dramani Mahama’s leadership, including fiscal consolidation by government, a tight monetary policy stance by the central bank, and renewed confidence from investors and the public. Headline inflation has dropped to 9.4 percent as of September 2025, returning to the medium-term target range for the first time in four years, while gross international reserves stood at approximately $10.7 billion as of August 2025.
Those numbers tell a compelling story of economic stabilization. The cedi’s recovery has offered tangible benefits. Imported inflation has eased, lowering costs for fuel, cement, and food. Foreign investors are again purchasing local bonds. Businesses can plan with slightly more certainty, even if exporters feel the pinch from a stronger currency that makes their products less competitive abroad.
But here’s where optimism meets reality. The cedi’s rise and fall often follow predictable patterns: election year spending, trade deficits, commodity price swings. Each bout of instability tells of a country balancing ambition with fiscal discipline, and discipline has historically proven difficult to maintain once immediate crises pass.
Ghana remains fundamentally tied to commodity exports and foreign borrowing. The current strength relies heavily on IMF support, tight monetary policy that constrains growth, and fiscal restraint that becomes politically challenging to sustain. What happens when IMF disbursements slow? When political pressures mount for increased spending? When global commodity prices shift unfavorably?
Ghanaians have lived through this movie before. The strong post-redenomination years from 2007 to 2011 gave way to steady depreciation. The relative stability of certain periods dissolved into the breathtaking free fall of 2022 and 2024. The current rally is real and impressive, but so was the panic when the currency lost over half its value just a year ago.
As of mid-October 2025, the Bank of Ghana’s official rates showed one US dollar buying at GHS 11.89 and selling at GHS 11.91, the British pound buying at GHS 15.86 and selling at GHS 15.88, and the euro buying at GHS 13.76 and selling at GHS 13.78. These rates represent strength, but also fragility. Small shifts in investor sentiment, unexpected global shocks, or domestic policy missteps could quickly reverse recent gains.
The Cedi@60 celebrations this week naturally focus on achievement and resilience. Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang called the currency a living symbol of sovereignty and economic identity. Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson urged Ghanaians to protect it by stopping the practice of pricing goods in foreign currencies. Bank of Ghana officials highlighted modernized supervisory processes and enhanced transparency.
These are important messages, and the institutional improvements are genuine. The central bank has indeed strengthened its operations, and government has shown fiscal discipline that was previously absent. The question isn’t whether progress has been made; it clearly has. The question is whether it’s sustainable.
At 60, the cedi is more than a medium of exchange. It’s a mirror reflecting Ghana’s economic resilience and fragility alike. It embodies the nation’s aspirations for self-reliance and sovereignty, but also its struggles with consistency and long-term planning. The currency’s volatility throughout six decades tells a story not just of external shocks and global forces, but of domestic choices about spending, borrowing, and reform.
Will the cedi continue defying gravity, or is this merely a pause before another tumble? Will prudent fiscal management keep it aloft, or will familiar pressures pull it back into free fall once electoral cycles shift and immediate crises fade from memory?
For now, the cedi looks healthy. Inflation is down, reserves are up, and the exchange rate has stabilized at levels that seemed impossible just months ago. But as every economist studying Ghana knows, stability has always been the exception rather than the rule. The cedi’s 60-year journey teaches that recoveries, no matter how impressive, must be maintained through discipline that outlasts celebrations.
The real test for Ghana’s currency comes not during commemorative events with dignitaries and speeches, but in the months and years ahead when policy choices become harder and political calculations more complex. History suggests optimism should be tempered with vigilance. The cedi has recovered before, only to slide again when attention shifted elsewhere.
Sixty years of experience should count for something. Whether Ghana has finally learned to sustain its currency’s health beyond brief rallies remains the nation’s most important economic question. The answer will be written not in anniversary speeches, but in budget decisions, monetary policies, and fiscal discipline maintained long after the celebration ends.
