Ghana Cedis Suck Monkey Butt

So the Ghanaian government re-denominated their currency. There was a huge campaign last year about it, and they instituted the new currency in July.

I'm pissed about it, so prepare for a rant.

The old money was based on the idea that approximately ¢10,000 = $1. Now they've changed it so that approximately ¢1 = $1. Should be easy and great, right?

Nope. The idea behind it was to make easier to carry more money. But that doesn't make any sense. The most used bill before the redenomination was the ¢1,000 note- which is equal to about $.10. Now that note is a coin, and a rare one at that. You don't take the most commonly used bill and make it a coin- that isn't going to make anyone's purses any lighter.

Plus, now the bills are so large, you can never get change. You go and change money and they give you ¢5o, ¢10, and ¢20 bills. Ridiculous! Before, people didn't even want to carry a ¢5 bill because if it was stolen or lost, they would lose a lot of money. Some people now go to thebank and get their entire months salary in one bill.

Besides that, almost all of my daily transactions are for less than ¢1. Nobody keeps adequate change to break downt those bills.

So the vendors solutions? To raise prices. To round up to the nearest ¢1, whereas before, prices were rounded up to the nearest ¢.10


So by redenomintaing the cedi, the government has effectively:

1. Wasted a lot of money in redesigning and printing a whole new currency.

2. Made it impossible for you to get your change, so you lose money practically every transaction.

3. Made the prices of everything go up considerably.

Way to go, President Kufuor.