What Is the Cedi to Dollar Rate Today?
The cedi closed at ₵11.85 against the US dollar on Tuesday — down 5.4% over thirty days as importers stock the year's second half. Bureau spreads have widened to 4.6%, the widest reading since spring 2024.
BoG midrate
updated 11:45 GMT
30-day change
against the dollar
30-day high
reached 10 Jun
30-day low
reached 12 May
GHS / USD · BoG midrate
Source: Bank of Ghana Interbank Exchange Rate · scraped daily 11:45 GMT. Min over period: ₵11.17 · Max: ₵11.92.
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.
— accra.cool desk
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.
— accra.cool desk
What forex bureaus are quoting today
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.
| Bureau⇅ | Neighborhood⇅ | Buy USD⇅ | Sell USD⇅ | Margin▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac Forex | Tema Community 1 | ₵12.08 | ₵12.45 | 3.06% |
| Mira Forex | Cantonments | ₵12.10 | ₵12.50 | 3.31% |
| Forex Bureau Limited | Osu | ₵12.05 | ₵12.45 | 3.32% |
| Cosmos Forex | Osu | ₵12.00 | ₵12.40 | 3.33% |
| Royal Forex | East Legon | ₵12.05 | ₵12.48 | 3.57% |
Per-bureau margin: (sell − buy) ÷ buy. The narrower a bureau's own margin, the better the deal at that counter. The headline 'bureau spread' in the lede above is a separate metric — it compares retail bureau sell rates against the BoG official midrate.
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.
— accra.cool desk
Convert any amount
Live conversion uses the BoG midrate. Forex bureaus will quote a slightly different rate at the counter (see the table below).
Cedi against every major currency
| 1 unit of ↓ | in GHS | in USD | in EUR | in GBP | in NGN | in CFA | in CNY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GHS | 1.0000 | 0.084388 | 0.073206 | 0.063091 | 119.05 | 21.7391 | 0.606061 |
| USD | 11.8500 | 1.0000 | 0.867496 | 0.747634 | 1410.71 | 257.61 | 7.1818 |
| EUR | 13.6600 | 1.1527 | 1.0000 | 0.861830 | 1626.19 | 296.96 | 8.2788 |
| GBP | 15.8500 | 1.3376 | 1.1603 | 1.0000 | 1886.90 | 344.57 | 9.6061 |
| NGN | 0.008400 | 0.000709 | 0.000615 | 0.000530 | 1.0000 | 0.182609 | 0.005091 |
| CFA | 0.046000 | 0.003882 | 0.003367 | 0.002902 | 5.4762 | 1.0000 | 0.027879 |
| CNY | 1.6500 | 0.139241 | 0.120791 | 0.104101 | 196.43 | 35.8696 | 1.0000 |
Cross rates derived from BoG midrate. Read a row: 1 of the row currency buys [value] of the column currency.
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.
— accra.cool desk
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.
— accra.cool desk
Read next
this week
Cedi changes this week
Every move on the cedi we have flagged in the last seven days.
Read →fuel today
How fuel prices follow the cedi
Pump prices reset every NPA window — and the cedi sets the floor.
Read →market prices
What import prices look like
Makola basket basket index, updated weekly.
Read →