Ah, there goes another ‘useless’ coin
I am neither a rocket scientist nor an economist and I don’t think one needs to be either of them to understand this basic fact of GH life I intend to write about — our beloved cedis.
The so-called 'Ghana' cedi
If there is one thing that accounted for the rise of inflation in Ghana during the second term of Kufuor’s administration, I strongly believe the so-called new Ghana Cedi is to blame. In fact, ever since the country’s currency was re-denominated or revalued or whatever it is that was done to the money, the prices of basic goods and services just shot up almost astronomically – thanks to the arrival of some new currency denomination.
A lot of technical jargons were used to justify and explain why the country’s currency had to undergo a re-naming ceremony…most of which I (a) did not and still do not understand and (b) have already forgotten about. For the average Ghanaian like myself, buying my pure water at ¢500 was no stress to me at all. I enjoyed buying my balls of kenkey at ¢4,000 and ¢5,000. Then one fine Monday morning I woke up to the news that we were now going to use cedis and pesewas as was the case in the days of old. Little did I imagine that life was going to be so complicated.
Folks would bear with me that it took quite some time for people to wrap their brains around the workings of the new currency christened GHANA CEDI. Ghana cedi paaa? Hmm! We were told the GH before the cedi sign was to differentiate the new cedis from the old cedis —as if I really care. But since 2007 to date, it appears the GHANA CEDI tag is here to stay.
But let’s put that aside for a moment. The pesewa denomination of the new currency has received the most scorn from the public.
The embattled one pesewa coin
Take the sad story of the ONE PESEWA coin for instance. It is very small and light. Some say it was made with copper wires (I don’t know how true that is and I seriously do not believe it). But made from copper or not, its ability to corrode is very high and if it drops to the ground, you will not hear nor feel a thing. It’s like a pin dropping.
Owing to these enviable qualities of the One Pesewa coin, traders and buyers alike have shunned the coin. Some traders and trotro mates will fight with you if you dare give it to them as payment. So what happened? The Central Bank came out to condemn the action of persons who refuse the money as legal tender and later said it was going to do something about the numerous complaints made about the coin. Till date, nothing concrete has come out–that is if the Bank of Ghana folks still remember that they promised to attend to the coin.
As if losing the One Pesewa coin was not enough, it appears the FIVE PESEWA coin is next on the endangered species list. Since traders refused the One Pesewa coin, they rounded off the prices of their goods to the nearest 1000 or better still to Five pesewas. But since the recent increase in petroleum products at the beginning of the ‘Action Year’, the 5 pesewa coin seems to be fading into the shadows.
Is the 5 pesewa coin also going to face rejection?
Although the Ghana Private Road Transport Union [GPRTU] has come out with figure to be charged by the commercial drivers — which prominently features the 5 pesewa coin — most drivers have on their own accord rounded up the figures to 10 pesewas. For instance, commercial vehicles that used to charge between 65 pesewas and 95 pesewas are expected to increase their fares by 15 pesewas. But drivers plying the Spintex – Accra/ Circle route who used to charge 75 pesewas are now charging ¢1.00 instead of 90 pesewas. See the emerging problems already?
A lady sitting next to me in a trotro on Monday had to pay 10 pesewas for a sachet of pure water which usually sold at 5 pesewas. So I ask, if pure water, the only commodity on the market that lent some credence to the 5 pesewa coin is now ignoring its own ‘paddy’, then what is the fate of the 5 pesewas coin? Has it also been rendered useless like the 1 pesewa coin? And is there anything we can do as a people to make life bearable for ourselves instead of having the traders amongst us inflate prices all the time and blame one “Aban” [government] or the other as been responsible for the hardship we face as a nation?
Yes it is true that government’s fiscal policies — like the decision to make Ghanaians pay for realistic fuel prices when their salaries have not been adjust to tally with the increase — can result in economic hardships but is it also not the case that our own hawkers, market women and shop owners are also killing us softly by determining which denomination of the currency they want to use for business?
And oh by the way, why are we still calling our currency the Ghana Cedi if it was just intended for the year 2007 when the cedi was in transition? Is there another country somewhere in the world that also uses the cedi as its legal tender? Then why not spare us the ‘Ghana Cedi’ recital and can someone please tell the banks to clear the GH¢ off our cheque books? Leave the ¢ sign at least that we are use to and throw the GH somewhere or better still give it to the showbiz folks to add up to their lexicon.
