The CEO of Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, has offered a detailed explanation of the recent strengthening of the Ghanaian cedi, attributing it to a combination of favorable global dynamics and Ghana’s prudent internal policies.
In an interview on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Friday, May 9, Jackson remarked, “The stars aligned for Ghana.”
According to him, the cedi’s performance cannot be seen as a fluke, but rather the outcome of both timely international developments and domestic economic discipline. “The situation is good. We are in a good space,” he said. “We are in a good space because the stars aligned for us and, better still, because of our internal commitments and discipline that we’ve shown this year—we were able to take advantage when the stars aligned.”
Jackson pointed to three major external trends that played to Ghana’s advantage. First, the U.S. dollar experienced depreciation, which began during the Trump administration due to escalating trade tensions, especially with China. This made other currencies, including the cedi, relatively stronger. Second, the global drop in oil prices, driven by reduced demand amid economic slowdown, eased Ghana’s import burden, especially since oil is the country’s largest import. Third, the rise in global gold prices served Ghana well, as investors sought refuge in gold amid market instability. Jackson emphasized this point, stating that “the icing on the cake” was the appreciation of Ghana’s gold reserves, held by the central bank.
On the domestic front, Jackson praised the Bank of Ghana’s strategic foresight in boosting gold reserves and restructuring how value is retained from gold production. “First of all, our central bank has consistently sought to increase its gold reserves. By doing that, it was taking advantage of the stars aligning,” he said. He added that over the past eight years, gold had outperformed the U.S. dollar by more than 100%.
Jackson also emphasized the importance of transparency in managing the country’s gold resources. He referred specifically to gold-backed financial instruments, noting: “The issue of goldbod and its implementation possibly in transparent and an accountable manner meant that we were going to retain far more value in our gold…So there was that internal commitment to prudent economic behaviour.”
Overall, Jackson’s analysis paints a picture of a country that was both fortunate and prepared—able to take advantage of shifting global trends because of its own calculated and disciplined approach to economic management.
