Ghana spent $8.97 million to print new GH¢100, GH¢200 cedi notes, according to Finance Minister

According to him, $4.45 million and $4.53 were made up for the GH¢100 and GH¢200 notes respectively

“This is made up of $4.45 million and $4.53 million for the GHS100 and GHS200 notes respectively,” he explained.

Mr Ofori Atta said this while responding to questions on the process in Parliament.

He noted that “an amount of $5.39 million of the total contract has been paid.”

Introduction of the new notes

In 2019, the Bank of Ghana introduced GH¢100 and GH¢200 notes as additions to the country’s currency denomination mix.

The Central Bank also introduced a GHC2 coin.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Ernest Addison said, “a lot of thinking went into the decision to introduce the higher denomination banknotes.”

He said the plan with the new notes was to address the deadweight burden on the economy from past inflation and cedi depreciation.

“Accordingly, in March 2017, the Bank of Ghana begun a process of conducting a thorough review of the structure of the currency including on the note/coin boundary and acceptability and use of the individual currency series. The review exercise which involved conducting a nationwide survey with market operatives, businesses and international stakeholders as well as some empirical exercise. The outcome of the exercise revealed the resurgence of deadweight burden issues on the economy due to past significant inflation and perennial depreciation of the currency, the significant increase in the demand for higher denomination banknote and increased cost of printing.”

Adding that the structure of the denomination has changed resulting in a shift in demand for higher denominations.

“In line with the results of the exercise, the Bank of Ghana is introducing a new GH¢2 coin, and GH¢100 and GH¢200 banknotes denominations into circulation to complement the existing series to ensure customer convenience and bring about efficiency in the printing of currency to generate savings for the country,” Dr Addison noted.