The Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Friday, announced in a statement on its website that, it has introduced two new denominations ‒ ghc 100 and ghc 200 ‒ which the Central Bank said are of high value Ghana cedi banknotes.
The Bank of Ghana has also introduced a new ghc2 coin.
The Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, in a speech, unveiled the notes and coin, spelling out reasons for the new banknotes and the coin.
Dr. Addison said the high levels of inflation currency depreciation in the past have eroded some of the gains from re-denominations.
According to him, the deadweight burden ‒ reflected in high transaction cost ‒ has re-emerged and added that the set of higher denominations is expected to address the increased transaction cost, especially in high-valued transactions in a cash-based economy like Ghana.
Adding that the structure of the banknotes denomination has changed, resulting in a shift in demand for higher denominations ghc50 and ghc20 account for about 70% of the total demand), reflecting the expansion in income and prices.
“The introduction of the higher value denominations in circulation are therefore necessary to ensure customer convenience, reduction in the costs of printing and other currency management processes,” the BoG stated.
Dr. Addison said, ensuring customer convenience, reducing high transaction cost, efficiency in high-value transactions in cash, reduction of cost of printing, as well as currency management, including processing, transporting and storing banknotes, are some of the benefits that come with the introduction of the new notes.
Below is the speech by the Governor culled from the BoG website
Story filed by Ruth Abla Adjorlolo
