The Probe

So you just had the governor of the Bank of Ghana give that explanation.

Kofi, let's start with the basics.

Whatever he's saying, how are we supposed to get out of it? And is it ever going to be possible?

I think looking at where we are...

For us not to

have this problem...

Winston, you agree with me that the depression has started very early relative to last year because we have looked at the data for this year and what you see is that there is some level of difference, right? Compare what we had last year.

Just look at the beginning of the year and you can see that this is the point where the city begins to see some level of pressure.

And per the checks we've done, the depreciation against the dollar is now more than 10 cities.

That is even at the interbank level.

If you go to the forex bureaus, payment platforms, people are now charging 12 cities 20 pesos.

But if you go to the interbank level, you could still get about, I mean, 11 cities, 50 pesos or 60 pesos to the dollar.

The basic question that, I mean, Gemma asked about whether we can actually get out of this kind of, you know, problem.

The governor actually answers that.

He says that the city is not... a fixed commodity where its price is fixed for a whole year.

It moves, right? And he used that word, the city moves.

And he has always made a point about using the data.

He says, look at the data, look at what the data is telling you.

If you look at what the data is telling us this year, relatively, it's completely different from what we experienced last year, because Winston, last year around this time, we saw in May or possibly April 2025, The cumulative performance of the city against the dollar around that time was a 40% appreciation.

Now we are doing, even at Interbank, depreciation of about 10%.

That tells you that whatever we achieved last year, it's not the same kind of trajectory we are on.

And I listened to the governor also on another program saying that this time around, we are not intervening in the market like we used to do.

we are now focusing on building reserve.

Remember, the government has introduced the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Program, which is a GANRAP, and the main focus is to build 15 months of import cover.

And if you look at you building 15 months of import cover by 2028, you need close about $9.6 billion every year to be able to make sure that you get to that level, if you want to get 15 months of import cover.