The cedi, fuel and your savings: your money brief for 18 September 2026
The dollar stood at ₵11.44, and petrol was ₵16.77 a litre. Here's what the week's prices mean for your pocket.
Whether you're restocking a shop with imported goods, paying school fees abroad, waiting on money from family overseas or just filling up for the week, the same few numbers decide how far your cedis go. Here's where they stood this morning, Friday 18 September: the dollar stood at ₵11.44, and petrol was ₵16.77 a litre.
The cedi
A forex bureau sign displaying foreign currency notes beside a Ghanaian street with a taxi parked outside. Photo: Efo Komla, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On the interbank market a dollar cost ₵11.44.
The rate you actually get is another matter. Ghana's banks and bureaus were typically selling dollars at ₵12.00 and buying them at ₵11.30. So if you need $500 to pay a supplier, budget about ₵6,000; if a relative sends you $500, expect about ₵5,650 when you change it. That ₵350 gap is the dealers' margin, and it varies from one to the next, so it pays to compare before you change money. Our rate checker shows who is offering the best rate today.
Elsewhere, the pound was ₵15.29 and the euro ₵13.14. Need a different amount or a past date? The cedi converter does both.
At the pump
Trotro minibuses packed into the Kaneshie station in Accra, viewed from a footbridge. Photo: JulianGrayscales, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Petrol is ₵16.77 a litre, diesel ₵17.77 and premium ₵18.99, the typical price across the fuel companies we track. Filling a 50-litre tank with petrol comes to about ₵839. If you drive a trotro or a delivery van that takes 30 litres of diesel a day, that's about ₵533 before your first fare.
Fuel companies can reset their prices at the start of each pricing window, on the 1st and 16th of every month; the next one opens on Thursday 1 October. The fuel cost calculator works out any trip at today's prices.
The world prices behind it
Close-up of stacked 400-ounce gold bullion bars stamped 999.9. Photo: Andrzej Barabasz (Chepry), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In August 2026, the latest month the World Bank has published, cocoa averaged $5,950 a tonne, gold $4,411 an ounce and Brent crude $90.90 a barrel. Gold, oil and cocoa earn most of Ghana's export dollars, so strong prices help hold the cedi up; and the price of crude finds its way to the pump within a pricing window or two.
What to watch this week
- Fuel prices can change when the next pricing window opens on Thursday 1 October.
- Treasury bill rates come out after each weekly auction; we update them as soon as the Bank of Ghana publishes.
- The cedi moves every day. Get the dollar, pound and euro rates and pump prices by text each morning with Daily Rates, GHS 12 a month.
The week in numbers
Every figure is from the API Ghana snapshot of 2026-09-18, compared with the same day a week earlier. World prices are monthly averages. The full series, bank by bank and company by company, are on the markets page and in the API.
The cedi
| This week | Last week | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US dollar | ₵11.44 | — | — |
| British pound | ₵15.29 | — | — |
| Euro | ₵13.14 | — | — |
| Nigerian naira | ₵0.0086 | — | — |
| Dollar at the banks (buying) | ₵11.30 | — | — |
| Dollar at the banks (selling) | ₵12.00 | — | — |
At the pump
| This week | Last week | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petrol | 16.77 ₵/L | — | — |
| Diesel | 17.77 ₵/L | — | — |
| Premium petrol | 18.99 ₵/L | — | — |
World prices
| Latest month | A week earlier | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa | 5,950 $/t | — | — |
| Gold | 4,411 $/oz | — | — |
| Brent crude | 90.90 $/bbl | — | — |
Cover photo: Ibn Shiraz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
