Money & safety

Ghana runs on the cedi (GH₵). You will get a materially better rate for cash dollars at a licensed forex bureau than at a commercial bank, and the gap is not small.

For scale, in early August 2026 forex bureaus were selling dollars around GH₵12.30-12.45 while the Bank of Ghana interbank rate sat near GH₵11.70. That roughly ten per cent spread between the official rate and the street rate is normal and persistent, so do not treat the interbank rate you see on a currency app as the rate you will be offered.

The Bank of Ghana publishes daily interbank rates at bog.gov.gh. Use it to know what the official rate is, then expect a bureau to be some way off it.

Change money at a licensed bureau, at the airport or in town. Count it before you walk away.

Rates move constantly. The figures above are a snapshot from August 2026, not a quote.

This is the single thing most December guides get wrong, and it will cost you if you plan around it.

Mobile money runs Ghana. Almost everyone pays with it, a great many small vendors prefer it, and it is genuinely excellent, if you live here.

To hold a MoMo wallet you need a SIM registered in your own name plus valid identification. Passports are accepted as ID. But MTN's own terms require foreign nationals to provide evidence of residence, meaning a resident permit, and a two-week tourist does not have one.

So plan for cash and cards, and treat any mobile money access you do manage to arrange as a bonus rather than the backbone. Do not land expecting to pay for your week by phone the way the people around you are.

If somebody offers to register a wallet in their name for you to use, understand what that means: the account is legally theirs, the funds sit under their identity, and you have no recourse. It is common and it is a bad idea.

Cards work at hotels, established restaurants, malls and larger businesses. They do not work in most of the places you will actually want to spend money in.

Card skimming is the main form of card fraud in Ghana, and tampered terminals are the usual method. Keep the card in sight during the transaction, prefer terminals in established businesses, and check statements while you are still travelling rather than after you get home.

Carry enough cash for the day and leave the rest where you are staying. Cash and cards, not one or the other.

Ghana is a genuinely welcoming place and the overwhelming majority of people you meet are exactly what they appear to be. But a city full of visibly foreign visitors with holiday money attracts a specific set of approaches, and December is peak season for them too.

At the airport: decline unsolicited help with your bags from anyone who is not a uniformed porter or official. Luggage and document theft at Kotoka is a documented problem. Use the marked taxi dispatch queue or a ride-hailing app, never an unmarked car offering a ride. The going rate gets multiplied by two or three.

Accommodation: last-minute cancellations are a known December pattern, where a booking is dropped the day before so the room can be resold at a higher rate. Book somewhere with a real cancellation policy, reconfirm a week out and again the day before, and keep the confirmation in writing.

Mobile money fraud: nobody legitimate will ever call and ask you to read out a six-digit code. Not MTN, not a bank, not GhanaPost. This is the most common fraud in the country and it runs hardest over the holidays.

On the road: staged collisions, where someone bumps a vehicle or steps into it and then demands cash, happen in congested urban traffic. Stay in the car and call the police rather than settling on the spot.

Online first: if you are coming to Ghana to meet someone you know only from the internet, particularly if money has already been discussed, treat that as a scam until proven otherwise. Visitors lose serious sums this way every year.

Check your own government's current travel advice before you go. The US State Department, the UK FCDO and Global Affairs Canada all publish Ghana-specific guidance and update it through the season.

112 is the unified emergency line. Police, fire and ambulance, from any network, toll-free. Use this first.

The individual services still answer directly:
Police 191
Fire Service 192
Ambulance 193

Before you travel, save your own embassy or high commission's Accra number in your phone, and register with your government's traveller service if it has one. Photograph your passport and yellow fever card and keep the images somewhere you can reach without the originals.