Ghana’s recent Cedi gains may be short-lived unless urgent export-driven reforms are implemented, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has cautioned.
Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, a Senior Fellow at the IEA, has warned that the Ghanaian Cedi could relapse by December 2025 if the country does not shift its economic strategy to focus on local production and exports.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, May 27, Dr. Antwi-Danso said that the current appreciation of the Cedi is not sustainable.
“What we are doing is that we are not stabilizing permanently. We will relapse. By December, I believe that we will relapse. And this is coming from a technical point of view, not a political one,” he stated.
He called on policymakers to move away from short-term currency interventions and instead strengthen Ghana’s economic fundamentals through industrialization and export competitiveness.
According to Dr. Antwi-Danso, a shift toward value addition, industrial growth, and a robust export economy is the only path to achieving long-term currency and economic stability.
“Our forex appreciating, and the Cedi also appreciating is not the answer. You must do more—you must try and be an export economy,” he emphasized.
His warning comes just a day after the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Asiamah, revealed that the Cedi had appreciated by 24.1% against the U.S. dollar in recent months. Speaking at the Ghana CEO Summit, Dr. Asiamah attributed the improvement to disciplined monetary policy, reforms in the forex market, and increased remittance inflows. He firmly denied any manipulation of exchange rates, saying:
“Let me emphasise that the Central Bank is not using international reserves to prop up the Cedi, nor are we engineering an unsustainable appreciation.”
Despite the positive outlook from the Bank of Ghana, economists like Dr. Antwi-Danso maintain that Ghana remains vulnerable to external shocks and currency fluctuations unless long-term structural reforms are pursued.
The IEA’s statement reinforces the growing call for a national economic strategy that focuses on production, exports, and macroeconomic resilience.