Financial Expert, Owusu Agyebeng has applauded the Bank of Ghana (BOG) for its decision to phase out the GH₵1 and GH₵2 notes in circulation.
The financial expert stated that such a decision is “a step in the right direction”.
Explaining why he holds this view, he shared with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show: “The decision to phase out the currency is a step in the right direction as BOG considers the economic implication for the country as the most important factor with every decision they make.
There is so much pressure on the lower currency notes because these notes are mostly used in many transactions and as such, they go bad in a very short time. Thus, printing these lower currency notes incurs so much cost to the state”.
Owusu Agyebeng stated that while minting the coins is cost-effective compared to printing the notes, it is also important that the populace is educated on how to properly handle the notes as these are not mutually exclusive.
“The minting of coins and the education on how to handle money can be done alongside each other. This is because education might take a very long time before the citizens will understand the need to handle money properly”.
Ghana’s central bank has served notice that it would phase out the GHC1 and GHC2 notes in circulation.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, said the decision to stop printing the notes is to save cost, adding the coin versions of those notes would be in circulation.
Addressing a press conference after the MPC meeting Monday, 27 September 2021, 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”.
“Notes that circulate widely come back very torn and soiled and they are very difficult for our currency processing machines to process them.”