[Ghana] New GH¢5 note to be circulated today

The new GH¢5 note which was outdoored by the Bank of Ghana last Friday as a  commemorative note of its anniversary will be in circulation today, Tuesday March 7, 2017.

One distinctive feature of the new note is that it has an engraved portrait of Dr James Kwegyir Aggrey, a missionary and a teacher who contributed immensely to education in the Gold Coast.

The note also has tactile markings to assist the visually impaired. The colour of the ‘GH¢ 5’ figure at the top left corner of the note, changes colour from green to blue when tilted.

There have been concerns that the new note will replace the old ones but a member of the Currency Department of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Dominic Owusu stressed that the new currency will be used alongside the old currency.

Meanwhile, some currency analysts have debunked rumours that the new currency will create issues when it is ran through a counting machine due to its relatively smaller size. The General Manager, Treasury of the HFC Bank, Joseph Nketiah told Citi News that, “it will not be a problem at all.”

“The counting machines are not designed for a spefic currency so they are designed to take difference sizes of currency. The only thing is that as you feed it, it starts picking out the features and the security features includes the size of the currency,” he said.

The issuance of the note is the first time a new denomination is being issued under the tenure of the BoG Governor, Dr. Abdul Nashiru Issahaku.

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