Kenya's shilling and Ghana's cedi could weaken next week on increased dollar demand, while Zambia's currency is seen strengthening further on dollar inflows chasing government debt.
The Bank of Ghana surprised markets by raising the benchmark interest rate by 100 bps to 22.0 percent in part to slow the cedi's decline, Governor Henry Kofi Wampah said.
The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee is due to meet on May 19 but forex dealers say there might be no reprieve on the prevailing tight control in forex market, which has restricted access to dollar by importers.
"Some moderate depreciation risk is possible," said Shahzad Kamaluddin, a trader at Crane Bank, referring to the shilling. Demand for the greenback has been largely subdued this week with traders attributing it to corporates stock piling the local currency to meet their tax payments. The local currency is 7.5 percent weaker against the dollar so far this year.