Claim: The US dollar never reached GH¢17 under the NPP government

Source: Awal Mohammed, NPP communication team member

Verdict: True

Researched by Nusrat Essah

A member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) National Communications Team, Awal Mohammed, speaking on the exchange rate on Joy Prime TV’s Prime Morning show, said the US dollar never reached GH¢17 under the erstwhile Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led NPP government.

In response to the host’s comment that the dollar reached GH¢17 during the administration of the NPP (2017 – 2024) on May 7, 2025, Mohammed Awal said: “It never got to 17 (cedis).”

Host: “But why didn’t we see that drastic change in the last couple of…”

Awal: “We saw stability.”

Host: “It got to 16.7, it went to 17 (cedis)”

Awal: “It never got to 17.”

Excerpts of the show shared by Joy Prime on X and Facebook with the caption: “Under the NPP, the dollar never hit 17 cedis – Awal Mohammed defends NPP’s handling of the cedi,” have generated conversations across platforms with some users labelling Awal’s comment as lies. 

On X, the post has garnered over 62,000 views, with 59 comments and 30 reposts, as of the time of this report. On Facebook, it has attracted over 11,000 views and 131 comments.

This report will verify whether the dollar ever hit GH¢17 under the erstwhile NPP administration.

Fact-Check

In verifying the claim, GhanaFact reviewed historical interbank foreign exchange rates from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and media reports.

According to official records from BoG’s Historical Interbank Foreign Exchange Rates, the cedi never reached GH¢17 per dollar. The highest recorded interbank rate during the last government was GH¢16.4200 on November 6, 2024.

GhanaFact noted that the cedi to dollar rate reached GH¢ 16.1 on October 23, 2024, and peaked at GH¢16.4200 on November 6, 2024. 

Fig.3 – Screenshot of BOG’s dollar to cedi exchange rate as of November 6, 2024. 

However, the rate between the two trading currencies began to decline on November 14, 2024, to GH¢16.07, and then to GH¢15.96 on November 15, 2024. 

Fig.4- Screenshot of BOG’s rates as of November 14, 2024. 

GhanaFact’s checks on google live foreign exchange rate dashboard confirms that the dollar never reached GH¢17. The highest recorded rate was GH¢16.4685 on November 9, 2025.

GhanaFact found that on November 12, 2024, Myjoyonline reported that the dollar was selling at GH¢17 on the retail market. However, this exchange rate cannot be considered as an official rate. 

Verdict 

Therefore, based on the central bank data, Awal Mohammed’s claim that the dollar never hit GH¢17 under the NPP government is true.

This story was written by Nusrat Essah and edited by Nusrat Essah