'Resource us to educate grassroots on currency conversion' - NCCE

The Sekyere South District of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has appealed for resources and funding from relevant agencies, to intensify its effort at educating the public on the conversion of the old currency to the new.

It said the process has become unduly protracted and citizens in the rural communities are yet to grasp the situation.

Mr Evans Nunoo, the District Director, said the lack of understanding in the quotation of the new currency has hindered their capacities to ask relevant questions or demand accountability in the cost of government-funded development projects and other financial transactions, quoted in the new Ghanaian currency.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Agona, he said alternatively, some unscrupulous persons within the various local markets preyed on the ignorance of the local people and deliberately quoted prices of products in the old currency to dupe them.

He said discrepancies and the alternate use of price quotations in both the new and old currencies has fuelled corruption.

Mr Nunoo said the situation has also affected the patronage of Ghanaian products by foreigners in the country, this is due to the fact that prices of items quoted in the old cedi may look exorbitant to the foreigners.

Citing a scenario to buttress his point, he said a total cost of District Assembly project stated as GH¢200 million, may have different representations to the grassroots persons in the local communities as they may understand the quoting in the old currency and not the new currency.

“Discrepancies in monetary quotations after 11 years of re-denomination is a serious issue, needing immediate action to end the seeming confusion of older people and those in the rural communities” he said.