Kumasi, July 3, GNA- There were unusual long meandering queues at banking halls of Banks in the Kumasi Metropolis on Tuesday morning as the financial institutions began issuing the new Ghana cedi notes and coins to their customers.
A visit by the GNA to some commercial banks on the Harper Road at Adum indicated that bank customers had formed long queues waiting to be served by cashiers.
There were also long queues at the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) service points outside the banking halls.
An official of the Harper Road branch of the Barclays Bank explained to the GNA that the long queues were due to the slow process in explaining the conversion of the old currency to new currency. He said there was the need for Bank officials to carefully explain the conversion process to the customers and that the situation would be normalised in due course.
Customers who had just seen the new currency notes and coins for the first time at the banking halls were seen discussing and feeling the texture of the new notes.
While some customers admired the beauty and the smaller nature of the new notes others were trying to master the conversion from the old currency to the new ones.
Some ATM card holders at the Kumasi main branch of the Ghana Commercial bank found it difficult to adjust to the new system as they continually punched wrong figures resulting in the inability of the machine to give them money.
Bank officials had to be called several times to teach the customers how to manipulate the machines to give the correct amount of money they wanted to withdraw.
The issuing out of the new currency notes had become the most topical issue in the Kumasi metropolis as traders and workers as well as residents were seen gathered in groups discussing either the conversion rates or admiring the beauty of the notes and coins. The Bank of Ghana (BOG) announced July 1, as the day for the introduction of the new Ghana cedis.
However, the new cedi notes and coins came out on Tuesday July 3, because the effective day fell on Sunday a non-working day while the following Monday was also declared a holiday. 3 July 07
