John Kumah’s claim on Ghana being the third strongest currency in Africa false

The Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah, stated on Friday, September 9, 2022, that Ghana’s cedi was currently the third strongest currency in Africa.

According to him, claims that Ghana’s cedi was the worst currency were mere propaganda.

Fact-Check Ghana has verified the deputy minister’s claim and finds it untrue.

Claim: “Ghana is third, actually, according to any global ranking of currencies. I am talking about the strength of currencies in Africa. The Libyan Dinar, followed by Tunisian Dinar, and then the Ghana cedi is the third strongest currency in Africa. But, maybe, they were talking about the rate of depreciation.”

Ghana Cedi is the third strongest currency in Africa – Deputy Finance Minister, Dr John Kumah. #PMExpress pic.twitter.com/wMeyNCZLj5

— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) September 9, 2022

Verdict: False

Explanation: Data produced by Bloomberg, one of the most trusted sources on market and financial data globally, as of September 9, 2022, shows that from September 2021 to date, the cedi has dropped by 38%. According to Bloomberg, this makes the Cedi “the worst performing currency in Africa and worldwide, the worst apart from Sri Lanka’s rupee”.

Africa Currency Ranking

World Ranking of Currencies 

The measurement of the strengths of global currencies by Bloomberg is based on real-time measurement of world currencies against some more stable currencies. These currencies include the US dollar (dollar index), UK pounds (pound index) and the Euro ( Euro Index).

Bloomberg’s methodology of measuring the strengths of global currencies has corroborated by an economist at the University of Ghana,  Prof Lord Mensah.

In an interview with Fact-Check Ghana, Prof Mensah explained that the strength of a country’s currency was calculated based on the rate of depreciation. He said a country’s currency could be determined as either weak or strong depending on “the quantum of money that is needed to purchase an external currency or look at the currency itself and how it is growing.”

This is contrary to the claim by the deputy minister of finance that even though the rate of the cedi’s depreciation might be the worst on the continent, the cedi is the third strongest currency in Africa.

Further checks by Fact-Check Ghana across many other trusted global currency ranking platforms, including FXSSI and Statista, did not show the Ghana cedi as the third strongest currency in Africa today.