Smooth change of old currency on last day

Koforidua, Jan. 1, GNA- Long queues were formed at a number of banks in the New Juaben Municipality as people made last minute efforts to have their old currencies changed to the new ones, which ceased to be legal tender last night.

A visit by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to some banks such as the Merchant Bank, SG-SSB, Barclays Bank and First Ghana Building Company on Monday showed long queues at the various banking halls by people trying to change the old currency.


Interestingly, the rural banks, which created customer desks for the change of the old currency, rather had no such queues. A Manager of one of the Rural Banks, who did not want to be named, said his outfit had anticipated such queues, but there was no rush to change the currencies by the customers, but rather they came to pay-in the old currency.


At the Odwen Anoma Rural Bank, a staff of the bank said the bank received its highest pay-in of old currency in July last year of 255 million cedis.

He said since then, the monthly volume of the currency paid-in by the customers of the bank kept dwindling and as at December 27, last year the bank received a little over five million cedis of the old currency for the whole of that month.


At the Barclays Bank, the branch manager Mr Armarh Amartey said the bank created a desk for the collection of the old currency and "today we have collected 10 million cedis of it, out of which 6 million were coins.


He assured that the bank would continue receiving the old currency till the deadline of July.