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

The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Ernest Addison has stated that the GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes will soon be phased out of the Ghanaian economy.

Dr. Addison said the two notes which are usually not in good shape will be replaced by their respective coins.

“The GH¢1 note and GH¢2 note would eventually be phased out because they are not cost-effective in terms of the printing cost,”

“They circulate very widely and come back very torn and soiled, and they are very difficult for our currency processing machines to process,”

“We have bales of GH¢1 notes that we are not able to process. So the view for the longer term is more or less get out of the GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes and use the GH¢1 and GH¢2 coins”.

“You will recall that the GH¢2 note was issued as a commemorative note. So commemorative notes are not notes that we will continue to print and therefore what we have done in the last two years is to introduce the GH¢2 coins, and you would expect that, eventually, it would more or less play the role that the GH¢2 note is playing”. He emphasized

Ghana currently has GH¢1, GH¢2, GH¢5, GH¢10, GH¢20, GH¢50, GH¢100 and GH¢200 in notes while one pesewa, ten pesewas, 20 pesewas, 50 pesewas, one cedi and two cedis are coins.

GH¢153 million spent on printing Ghana currency

The Bank of Ghana in 2018 spent over GH¢153 million to print the country’s legal tender, the cedi.

The amount included the actual cost of printing the Ghana cedi, fees paid to the agency that supervised the printing process, as well as what the central bank described as other currency expenses.

$8.97m spent on printing new 100, 200 cedi notes

The Government of Ghana also spent some $8.97 million on printing the new 100 and 200 cedi notes, which were introduced in November 2019.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who was responding to questions on the process in Parliament in March 2020 said: “This is made up of $4.45 million and $4.53 million for the GHS100 and GHS200 notes respectively”.