Mahama admits inheriting $8.98bn reserves from previous government – Nsemkeka
President John Dramani Mahama has admitted inheriting nearly $9bn ($8.98) reserves, effectively putting to bed how much reserves his government inherited from the previous government.
Officials of the two governments have been engaged in a back-and-forth debate on exactly how much reserves was left and whether the nation’s foreign exchange reserve had been completely emptied.
However, speaking at the opening of the Ghana–EU Business Forum in Accra, President Mahama acknowledged his government was bequeathed $8.9bn reserves, while acknowledging the impact of Ghana’s current total reserves of $10b is having on the recent gains of the Cedi against the US Dollar.
“The Ghanaian cedi, which depreciated by 19.2% in 2024, has shown signs of recovering, appreciating by 3.9% against the US dollar by the end of April 2025. This has been supported by stronger forex inflows, improved trade balancing and growing investor confidence,” he said.
“Our gross international reserves have improved further from $8.98 billion in December 2024 to $10.6 billion by April 2025,” the President added.