ACCRA, Ghana:July 9 (Xinhua) — Ghana’s central bank will from next month start issuing new and upgraded 50 cedi notes throughout the country, Governor Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur announced here on Monday.
Explaining the rationale behind the exercise at a press conference, Amissah-Arthur said counterfeiting was becoming so sophisticated that very high quality 20 cedi notes had been introduced into the system.
The central bank, he said, was taking the step as the cedi, the country’s currency, like all other currencies the world over, had come under pressure from counterfeiters, both internal and external, with the 50 cedi banknote being the most sophisticatedly counterfeited due to its high value.
According to him, the hologram had become one of the most common features the counterfeit merchants had mastered, but explained that, in most cases, they had turned the name “Bank of Ghana” upside down.
“The hologram deceives people; the hologram is so easy to make and is all over the place, and a few of the notes that have entered into the banking system are very fantastic,” he pointed out.
The governor announced that Ghanaians would be given a period within which they would continue spending the old notes alongside the upgraded ones. “But once that period is over, people can only exchange the old notes for new ones at the banks,” Amissah-Arthur stated.
He believed that counterfeiting affected the economy of a country as traders lost the value of their goods exchanged for those notes, while confidence in a country’s currency also reduced with persistent counterfeiting.
Introducing the features on the new notes, Deputy Governor Millison Narh said the exercise was to ensure that banknote security was not unduly compromised.
“Due to technological advancement, there is a need to continuously improve the security features of banknotes to make them more resilient to potential counterfeits,” Narh added.
Managing Director (MD) of the Barclays Bank Ghana Limited Benjamin Dabrah lauded the speed with which the central bank moved to avert “a looming danger”.
“It is fantastic the Bank of Ghana has moved so quickly to deal with an emerging problem in the system,” Dabrah indicated, adding that the move was good for the economy since it would secure people against all the problems associated with counterfeiting. (Xinhua)
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