Financial Expert, Owusu Agyebeng has expressed confidence that the GH₵1 and GH₵2 coins will not suffer the fate of the 1 pesewa coin in the country.
His statement comes at the back of the Bank of Ghana (BOG)’s decision to phase out the GH₵1 and GH₵2 notes while keeping the coins version of these notes in circulation.
According to him, there is no cause for alarm as these coins have much more value than the 1 pesewa coin.
He shared with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show: “What happened to the 1 pesewa coin is not the same situation as these GH₵1 and GH₵2 coins. The 1 pesewa had a lower value such that even if one gathered up to 5 pesewas, you can hardly buy anything with that amount. People rejected the 1 pesewa coin because of its value. It was only at the mall that you could buy with the pesewa but then you couldn’t gather that money to say 20pesewas to even buy water.
However, the GH₵1 and GH₵2 coins are legal tenders that everyone must accept”.
Owusu Agyebeng encouraged Ghanaians to embrace the BOG’s new strategy in phasing out the GH₵1 and GH₵2 notes and continue to use the coin versions of these notes.
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 very widely and they come back very torn and soiled and they are very difficult for our currency processing machines to process them.”