# Cedi watch — accra.cool > Live cedi-to-dollar rate from Bank of Ghana with 30-day chart, forex bureau quotes across Accra, and instant currency converter. ## Current snapshot - **cedi has weakened 5.4% in 30 days** — biggest May to June move since the 2022 crisis - **30-day high GHS 11.85** — reached 10 June 2026 - **30-day low GHS 11.24** — reached 12 May 2026 - **cedi lost 4.6% in May 2026 alone** — energy-sector dollar demand outweighed BoG supply - **BoG USD 1.2B/month FX support active for June** — announced 20 May 2026 - **GHS 11.85 per US dollar** — BoG interbank midrate - **bureau spread now at 4.6%** — widening — pressure visible on retail side - **BoG policy rate: 14.0%** — held in May 2026 after 5 consecutive cuts - **reserves at USD 14.4 billion** — 5.7 months of import cover ## Why we watch the cedi every day The cedi tells you what a month of rent costs an expatriate, what fuel will trade at next NPA window, and what a bag of imported rice will be at Makola by Friday. Every other vertical on this site moves when the cedi moves — sometimes immediately, sometimes with a two-week lag. So Cedi Watch is the most important number we track, even when it sits still for days at a time. Bank of Ghana publishes the official interbank rate daily at 11:30 GMT. Forex bureaus quote retail rates that diverge from interbank by 1.5–3% depending on demand. We track both, because they tell different stories: BoG is what the central bank thinks the cedi is worth; bureaus are what actual Ghanaians are paying to buy dollars today. ## Reading the 30-day trend A 1% weekly move barely registers; a 5% monthly move reshapes household budgets in West Hills, East Legon and Spintex alike. The chart above defaults to 30 days because that's the window where the cedi's direction becomes legible. Shorter windows are noise (a Wednesday BoG auction can swing things 0.3% intraday). Longer windows hide what's happening right now. When the line trends down (cedi strengthening), importers exhale and tomato prices ease at Makola. When it trends up, expect data bundles to be repriced within six weeks and Pent hostel fees to climb the following August. ## The bureau spread is a vibe check Compare the BoG midrate to the best forex bureau quote in any given week. When the spread sits below 1.5%, the market is calm — supply matches demand and bureaus aren't hoarding. When the spread blows past 4%, it's a tell: importers are scrambling for dollars, bureaus are rationing, and the official rate is lagging reality. Today the spread sits at 4.6% (GHS 11.85 BoG vs GHS 12.40 bureau sell) — the widest reading since the spring 2024 crisis. It's a clear signal that the cedi has further to fall before retail pressure eases, and that BoG's $1.2 billion monthly intervention is meeting strong headwinds. Watch for the spread to narrow back below 3% before declaring the pressure over. ## What actually moves the cedi Two forces dominate the cedi right now. First, dollar demand from corporate energy and import obligations — the May 2026 weakening of 4.6% against the dollar was driven almost entirely by foreign-currency demand exceeding Bank of Ghana auction supply by a factor of nearly four. Second, the Middle East conflict, particularly the Iran-Israel escalation and the Strait of Hormuz disruption, has pushed up global crude prices and squeezed Ghanaian importers who settle oil contracts in dollars. Bank of Ghana announced a $1.2 billion monthly FX support programme for June 2026 to ease the pressure. Whether it works depends on how long oil prices stay elevated. The policy rate sits at 14.0% after five consecutive cuts through early 2026 — the central bank held in May 2026 with the energy shock now front-of-mind. Election cycles still overlay everything; we're 18 months from the December 2027 election, and the cedi historically softens 3 to 6% in the six months preceding. ## How we source the data Cedi midrates come from the Bank of Ghana's daily Interbank Exchange Rate publication, scraped at 11:45 GMT each weekday. Bureau quotes are sampled from five locations across Accra — Forex Bureau Limited in Osu, Mira Forex in Cantonments, Cosmos Forex in Adabraka, Mac Forex in Tema, and Royal Forex in East Legon — refreshed weekly. Cross-currency rates (EUR, GBP, NGN, CFA, CNY) are derived from BoG via open.er-api.com daily. Historical depth on this page is 30 days; the full archive (which we hold back from the chart for clarity) extends to 2018. ## Forex bureaus versus banks You can change dollars at a Ghanaian commercial bank — GCB, Stanbic, Ecobank, all of them — but you'll typically get 1.5–2% worse than a licensed forex bureau on amounts under $5,000. Banks build a wider margin into their published rates. Forex bureaus are regulated by Bank of Ghana, must display their daily buy/sell rates publicly, and are concentrated in five neighborhoods: Osu, Adabraka, Cantonments, Tema, and East Legon. For amounts above $10,000 negotiate directly with a branch manager; banks will sharpen pencils. ## Common mistakes when reading the cedi Three to flag. Don't confuse the BoG midrate with what bureaus quote — the midrate is an average of the previous day's interbank trades; bureaus quote forward-looking. Don't assume the parallel market and the bureau market are the same thing — parallel is unregulated, bureaus are licensed. And don't average BoG and bureau rates to get a "true" rate; they're different products with different liquidity. Use the BoG rate for accounting, the bureau rate for actual transactions. ## Methodology All rates quoted are GHS per unit of foreign currency (₵11.24 means one US dollar buys ₵11.24, or equivalently one cedi buys $0.089). Daily change is computed against the previous trading day's BoG midrate. Weekly and monthly changes use closing rates from the corresponding day-of-week. Bureau spread is calculated as (max sell − min buy) ÷ midrate, expressed as a percentage. All times are GMT (Ghana doesn't observe daylight saving). --- Source: accra.cool. View the live interactive version at https://accra.cool/cedi Attribution: accra.cool desk.