Dr. Ernest Addison
The Bank of Ghana is withdrawing the GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes from circulation and leave their respective coins for use.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) yesterday, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest 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.”
“These are 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,” he said.
The Governor said “We have bales and bales of GH¢1 notes that we are not able to process. So the view for the longer term is to more or less get out of the GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes and use the GH¢1 and GH¢2 coins.”
Dr. Addison also said “You will recall that this is a note [GHC2] that was issued as a commemorative note … Commemorative notes are not notes that you continue to print.”
“And, therefore, what we have done in the last two years is to introduce the GH¢2 coin. You would expect that, eventually, it would more or less play the role that the GH¢2 note is playing.”
By Samuel Boadi