Ghana gets new banknote

BUSINESS

By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana

The new acting governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. H.A.K Wampah, has introduced an upgraded GH¢50 denomination to ensure that banknote security is not compromised and to maintain integrity by avoiding a general loss of confidence in the denomination.

The upgraded GH¢50 Banknote has a more secure and technologically advanced public recognition feature called ‘’Spark’’, together with other features. The Spark is in the form of a green cocoa pod located towards the bottom right hand corner of the banknote.  When tilted the cocoa pod changes colour progressively from green to blue and back to green. A beam of light rolls on the cocoa pod.  It would be observe that the Spark replaces the hologram on the old GH¢50 denomination.

 In a speech to officially launch the note, Dr Wampah disclosed that the upgraded GH¢50 banknotes will be in circulation in the country and can be obtained from your bankers upon request. He said the old banknote will run concurrently with the upgraded banknote and will be accepted as legal tender for the payment of goods and services until 30^th September, 2012.  Thereafter the old GH¢50 denomination can only be exchanged at the Bank of Ghana or any bank in Ghana.

The new governor then advised the General Public to familiarize themselves with the new features on the upgraded GH¢50 denomination and entreats them to endeavor to keep all the banknotes clean to maintain currency durability and integrity.

In July this year, the Bank of Ghana announced to the  General Public the Bank’s decision to introduce an upgraded GH¢50 denomination to ensure that banknote security is not compromised and to maintain integrity by avoiding a general loss of confidence in the denomination. On the same date, the Bank unveiled the educational materials on the upgraded banknote in the form of posters and flyers to launch the publicity campaign.  This has since been complemented with other multimedia advertisements.