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Google Said It Was A ‘Minor Glitch’ That Messed Up Conversion Rates For Ghana’s Already Struggling Currency

Google Said It Was A ‘Minor Glitch’ That Messed Up Conversion Rates For Ghana’s Already Struggling Currency

Google
The Ghana Cedi

Imagine the shock some had when they went online at Google to check the currency conversion rate for the Ghanaian dollar, the cedi, and they discovered that the cedi was trading at a rate of 22.72 to one US dollar. This was a whopping discrepancy of more than 300% on the previous day. Ghanaian currency has plummeted. No, even though the cedi is struggling, the rate was not from a Ghanaian financial crash. According to Google, on that day, March 15, a search engine glitch had occurred giving the wrong exchange rate for the cedi.

Google sent a letter to Ghana’s Ministry of Finance explaining the error. The letter was made public by the ministry in a press release.


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“We are aware of the issue of inaccurate conversions for Ghanaian Cedi currency on Friday the 15th of March. This was caused by a minor glitch that was quickly fixed,” wrote Titi Akinsanmi, Google’s head of Public Policy & Government Relations, West and Francophone Africa. “We always aim to provide people with the most relevant, useful information to help them to make the right decisions. But sometimes there are temporary issues that can cause people to have undesired experiences, like the one this past Friday. This was regrettable,” Akinsanmi added.

There is no denying, however, that the cedi is struggling. According to Bloomberg, the currency fell to a record low against the dollar in February.  The cedi “has depreciated by 8.6% this year — the most of more than 140 currencies tracked by the financial news agency,” CNN reported

Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo blames the country’s over-reliance on imports as a reason for a faltering economy.