On Monday, September 27, 2021, the Bank of Ghana Governor, Dr Ernest Addison, disclosed that the GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes will be replaced with their respective coins.
He said the central bank receives the GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes torn, weak and soiled and averred that the money processing machine is unable to process these monies.
Following this announcement, some Ghanaians have shared their thoughts on the growing development.
According to some Ghanaians who spoke to GhanaWeb’s Ernestina Serwaa Asante in an interview, the issuance of the GH¢1 and GH¢2 coins into the system will cause more harm than good.
They said it is easy for the coins to get missing while they go about their daily business.
Another concern raised was how they will continue giving these smaller denominations in church as offerings.
One of the interviewees said, “Replacing the smaller denominations won’t be of help to us. We the traders don’t like the coins because it easily gets lost and customers mostly reject the coins so we also do not want the GH¢1 and GH¢2 coins. We use the GH¢1 for offertory in church because it’s not everyone who is financially fit to give bigger denominations. Dropping GH¢1 coin in the offering bowl will be embarrassing. Some pastors do not want coins so we are pleading with government to maintain the GH¢1 notes.”
Another person added, “I dislike jeans that has many pockets so where do I keep the GH¢1 notes? They should halt with the issuance of coins for us to keep using the notes. If there’s any law that if you have the cedi notes and you manhandle or dirty it, you’ll be dealt with, we are okay with that. As for the coins, it won’t be of any help.
“With these coins matter, someone can go to church and have only the GH¢1 coin and use it as offering. These days, the offering bowls are glass so the GH¢1, GH¢2 coins will make noise when dropped. The coins can even break the offering bowl so it will be good to maintain the cedi notes. They should rather take out the GH¢100 and GH¢200 notes from the system,” he continued.
Others, however, sided with the BoG's decision to replace the GH¢1 and GH¢2 notes with coins.
