Reuters
Cross-border payments company Wise (WISEa.L) has suspended transfers in Ghana’s cedi currency after a rapid appreciation against the dollar this week made it costlier to move money to the West African country, a Wise spokesperson told Reuters on Friday.
The cedi is up 47% this week against the dollar, Refinitiv Eikon data showed – a record appreciation for a currency that only last week had been among the year’s worst performers. It is down 29% since the beginning of January as of Friday’s close.
Ghana, once considered a rising star among emerging market economies, is today facing a generational debt crisis. Inflation was above 50% in November, and the central bank has hiked its main lending rate by 12.5 percentage points this year. read more
On Tuesday, Ghana and the International Monetary Fund announced a staff-level agreement for a $3 billion relief programme, which Reuters first reported late last week.
A spokesperson for London-based Wise said that cedi functions, which were suspended Thursday, would be restored “as soon as the situation has stabilised” and that only a small number of transfers were affected.
Some Ghanaian users are feeling the pinch.
Since his return in January from a three-year stint in Slovenia, environmental scientist Gyengne Francis has used Wise to tap his euro savings and now cannot access the money he uses to sustain himself while in Ghana.
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