The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has expressed its commitment to tackle counterfeit currency, outlining progress towards achieving a zero-counterfeit regime.
The central bank reiterates that counterfeiting and the possession of counterfeit banknotes are punishable by law.
Section 18 of Ghana’s Currency Act states:
“Offences of forgery, uttering, or possession of forged notes, (b) utters that any forged note, wherever forged, shall be guilty of a first-degree felony”.
The Head of the Currency Management Department at BoG, Dominic Owusu, during a press conference held during a tour of the currency processing centre as part of Ghana Heritage Month, encouraged the public to be mindful of the banknotes’ features to help achieve zero-counterfeit targets.
“In Ghana, counterfeiting has never become a problem. The international threshold is 100 pieces per million banknotes, and we are far below that, as we are around 7 banknotes per million,” he disclosed.
“Despite that, we want to encourage the public to be aware of the security features on these notes,” he added.
He further urged handlers of banknotes to be more prudent in their transactions to preserve the integrity and trust of the cedi.
“The fact is that, for every country, the banknote becomes the business card of the citizens. The image of the country rests on the quality of the banknotes in circulation,” he stressed.
He explained that a well-handled currency not only reflects national pride but also serves as a tourism driver for the country.