Cedi depreciation forces BoG into introducing GH¢100, GH¢200 and GH¢2 coins

The Bank of Ghana has announced new cedi notes which it believes will help shore up the value of the currency.

Ghana will now issue GH¢100 and GH¢200 and GH¢2 coins, Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Ernest Addison said at a press conference in Accra on Friday.

“All these notes after the launch today has become legal tender,” the BoG Head of Issue Dominic Owusu told the press.

He explained the introduction of GH¢2 coins is to preserve the print life span of the currency. Dominic Owusu said the GH¢2 note is used frequently and easily gets destroyed.

The central bank often has to re-print the GH¢2 note after every seven months. But the coins can last for about 15 years, he told JoyNews.

He explained depreciation and inflation have worked to reduce the value of the cedi over the past decade as compared to the US Dollar.

“At the time of the redenomination, the GH¢1 was equivalent to US$1, the highest denomination then was the GH¢50 which was equivalent to the $50. Twelve years after the redenomination exercise, sustained periods of high inflation and the perennial depreciation of the currency has eroded in real terms the face value of the series of notes,” he said.

Ghana last issued new notes on 1 July 2007, replacing the Cedi (¢) with the Ghana Cedi (GH¢).

Ten thousand Cedis became equivalent to one Ghana Cedi in a re-denomination exercise with the tag line “there is no change in value, the value is the same.”

The central bank explained the removal of the zeros was in part to help in easy accounting and statistical record keeping.