Public Must Change To Euro By End of Year -BOG

The Bank of Ghana on Thursday asked holders of currencies of any of the 12 participating countries in the Euro Zone to exchange them in the forex bureaux or put it in their foreign exchange accounts before the close of December this year.

The 12 Euro-Zone members are Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France and Ireland. Others are Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland. Mr. Frederick France, Director of Treasury, told journalists in Accra that the Bank's directive was necessitated by member countries changing to Euro from January 1, 2002, after which their various old national currencies will cease to be legal tender.

He said the Bank of Ghana had met with the forex bureaux operators and commercial banks and advised them not to accept the old currencies after the end of December.

Mr. France asked forex bureaux operators and the banks to be on guard against unscrupulous people who would want to take advantage of the situation to exchange counterfeit notes.

Mr. Wim Olthof, Economic Attach? of the Delegation of the European Commission, said more than 14 billion euro banknotes and 50 billion euro coins would replace national currency banknotes and coins on January 1, 2002.

The new banknotes would be in seven denominations of five, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euro. The notes illustrate the evolution of architectural styles in the history of Europe.

The coins are in eight denominations of one, two, five, 10, 20 and 50 cents and one and two euro.

Mr. Olthof said the change would facilitate travelling, shopping and business as there was less risk of currency fluctuations and individuals could buy and sell in a larger competitive market.