AZA Finance FX Weekly: Africa Currencies Topline: Ghana: Cocobod to raise an additional US$400 million for this season.

Africa Currencies Topline
Nigeria: FX inflow euphoria loses steam as naira reverses gains.
Ghana: Cocobod to raise an additional $400 million for this season.
South Africa: 1 sentence summary here.
Egypt: The pound remains stable despite decreased tourism in Egypt.
Kenya: Fitch ratings warns against further slippage if exchange rate weakens further.
Uganda: Slowdown in the private sector.
XOF Region: Senegal — 30 hectares of land sold due to the construction of the “La Cité du Parc.”
XAF Region: Nigerian oil to move across Cameroonian territory.
Nigerian Naira (₦)
Compiled by Ikenga Kalu

Last week saw a halt in the naira’s dramatic appreciation against the dollar as speculators looked to buy back cheap FX. This triggered a frenzied attempt to purchase FX at recent levels as the naira reverses gains and spirals toward previous lows.

Late last week, wires reported that the Nigerian central bank had begun clearing the backlog of overdue FX forward to the tune of $6.7bn and that three banks received full payment. Certain banks also confirmed that the central bank had begun clearing the outstanding retail FX obligations although no formal figure was announced. FX demand seems to have regained steam and we expect to see the naira lose even further value against the dollar in the coming days.

Ghanaian Cedi (GH¢)
Compiled by Sakina Seidu

The Bank of Ghana is showing a USD/GHS rate of 11.5 away from current market levels of USD/GHS 11.9.

The highly anticipated $800 million cocoa syndicated loan expected to come in at the end of November, is experiencing some delays. Therefore, the government has requested a loan from some select institutions that trade in cocoa for a total of $400 million, of which half has already been secured.

We expect the Ghana cedi to slip with the increasing demand for U.S. dollars from the government, corporations and banks.

Further reading:

Bank of Ghana — Daily Interbank FX rate

Ghana web — Cedi sells at GH¢12.15 to $1, GH¢11.50 on BoG interbank

Reuters — Ghana borrows up to $200 mln from cocoa traders to plug funding gap

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