Cedi No Apicki But Abochi Has The Dollar - Minority

Addressing journalists in Parliament on Tuesday, July 29, Ex-Finance Minister and MP for Karaga, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, expressed alarm at what he described as a “deeply troubled” foreign exchange environment, riddled with arbitrage and dollar scarcity.

“The government is boasting of the cedi’s appreciation, but in the real market, Cedi no Apicki,” Dr. Amin Adam said, borrowing a popular phrase to question the credibility of official exchange rate data.

He explained that while the government pegs the interbank rate at approximately GHC10 to the US dollar, forex bureaus referred to colloquially as “Abochi” are selling dollars at rates exceeding GHC13. This wide spread, he noted, indicates serious arbitrage opportunities that reflect instability and inefficiencies in the market.

“Perhaps the Minister should know that yes, Cedi no Apicki, but Abochi get the dollar, as Honourable Adongo once said,” Dr. Amin Adam quipped, emphasizing the disconnect between official exchange rates and actual access to foreign currency.

The Minority accused the government of presiding over a dysfunctional FX market, with banks reportedly unable to meet foreign exchange demands from businesses and importers. This, they argued, has left the private sector stranded and weakened confidence in the economy.

According to Dr. Amin Adam, the recently delivered mid-year budget review failed to address the growing crisis in the forex market, offering no sustainable or transparent solutions. He also pointed to International Monetary Fund (IMF) disclosures indicating that the Bank of Ghana had injected over US$1.4 billion into the market in the first quarter of 2025 an intervention the government has not publicly admitted.

“These interventions are ad hoc, opaque, and lack a rule-based framework,” the Minority warned, adding that the foreign exchange market remains volatile, unpredictable, and damaging to business certainty.

They emphasized that the sharp difference between interbank and forex bureau rates, coupled with the growing scarcity of dollars, reveals a market under stress not recovery.