Bank of Ghana to phase out GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana Dr Ernest Addison has announced that the GHC 1 and the GHC 2notes would soon be phased out from the system.

He said this during the 102nd Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press conference in Accra on Monday 27^th September.

Dr Addison said: “Both the GHC1 note and the GHC2 note would eventually be phased out because they are not cost-effective in terms of the printing cost.

“These are] notes that circulate very widely, and they come back very torn and soiled and they are very difficult for our currency processing machines to process …”

He added, “We have bales and bales of GHC1 notes that we are not able to process. So the view for the longer term is to more or less get out of the GHC1 and GHC2 notes and use the GHC1 and GHC2 coins. You will recall that this is a note [GHC2] that was issued as a commemorative note … Commemorative notes are not notes that you continue to print.

“And, therefore, what we have done in the last two years is to introduce the GHC2 coin. You would expect that, eventually, it would more or less play the role that the GHC2 note is playing.”

Regarding the performance of the local currency, he said the Ghana Cedi has performed strongly with a year-to-date depreciation of 1.8 percent.

The country’s higher sovereign spread has not shifted foreign investor behaviour as net monthly purchases of securities on both the debt and equity markets remain relatively favourable.

“In the outlook, rising interest rates in advanced economies on account of tapering may pose some risks.

“However, the strong reserve build-up and foreign exchange inflows from the recent SDR allocation and the expected syndicated cocoa loan proceeds should help to cushion currency pressures in the near-term.”

Source: 3news.com