New Cedis Out Soon?

An exercise aimed at dealing with the excess liquidity situation and installing sanity into the financial sector is to be undertaking soon, reports The Statesman.

During the exercise, to be conducted along the lines of the 1979 demonetisation, people will be given 1,000 cedis of the new cedi for every 10,000 cedis they send into the bank.

Sources at the Ministry of Finance said the exercise has been necessitated by the "frightening quantum of money in people's hands and homes," which has starved the banks and the economy of the cash required for "healthy operations".

He also referred to the "irresponsible economic decision by the NDC government to print about 900 billion cedis into the system without going through the necessary process." The exercise, he said would take care of that excess.

The source noted that the amount of money in the system is "extremely excessive and worrying," and expressed confidence that the exercise would help stem the drift of cash figures into trillions. "This would help slow down all this talk about trillions and scale discussions about money back to billions," said the source.

It noted, however, that enough time would be given for people to change their money, unlike in 1979 when so much panic was created that led to the loss of several millions of cedis and lives.