- President Mahama Backs Cedi Note Refresh but Says Final Decision Rests With Bank of Ghana
President John Dramani Mahama has signalled that Ghana could refresh its banknotes as the country seeks to strengthen the security of the cedi against counterfeiting, opening another phase in the management of the national currency at a time when confidence in its value and integrity remains economically important.
Speaking during his Resetting Ghana Tour in the Upper East Region, Mr Mahama said the current notes had remained in circulation long enough to warrant stronger security features, while stressing that the formal decision rests with the Bank of Ghana.
“Every country, every ten years, you are supposed to refresh your currency because if you use the same currency for too long, people learn how to counterfeit it,” Mr Mahama said. “And so this particular currency is long overdue for refreshing.”
The President said he understood that the Governor of the Bank of Ghana was considering such an exercise, although the central bank would ultimately determine the timing, design and implementation. “I know the governor has plans to refresh the currency and I am sure that at the appropriate time, the Bank of Ghana will let Ghanaians know what they are doing about it,” he said.
The remarks are significant because a banknote refresh would be more than a cosmetic redesign of Ghana’s currency. In a cash-intensive economy, the integrity of physical notes remains an important part of the payments system, particularly for households and businesses operating outside fully digital channels, meaning stronger anti-counterfeit features can help protect confidence in everyday transactions.
A refresh would typically allow the central bank to introduce more advanced security features that are harder and more expensive to reproduce illegally. The principal objective would therefore be to strengthen the technical integrity of the notes rather than alter their denominations or economic value, a distinction that will be important in avoiding speculation about redenomination or demonetisation.
There is currently no indication from the President’s comments that Ghana is preparing another redenomination of the cedi. His remarks instead point to a security-focused upgrade of existing banknotes, with the Bank of Ghana expected to provide the technical details if and when a formal programme is approved.
Any such exercise would nevertheless carry financial and operational costs. New notes would have to be designed, printed, transported and distributed through the banking system, while commercial banks, cash-handling businesses, automated teller systems and other parts of the payments infrastructure could also require adjustments depending on the scale of the changes.
The Bank of Ghana would therefore have to weigh those costs against the economic risks associated with allowing security features to become increasingly vulnerable to counterfeiting. In that context, the value of a refresh would be measured not only in the cost of producing new notes, but in whether stronger authentication features reduce fraud, protect confidence and make cash handling more secure.
Mr Mahama also sought to separate the physical security of the banknote from the more fundamental question of what determines the strength of the currency itself. “What I would say is that the cedi today is stronger than it was in the past because of good economic management,” he said.
“Your currency is as strong as your economic management and because of the good policies we put in place, the cedi is holding its own against other major currencies,” the President added. That distinction is economically important because security features can make a banknote more difficult to counterfeit, but they cannot by themselves strengthen its exchange rate or purchasing power.
Those outcomes depend more directly on inflation, fiscal management, monetary policy, foreign-exchange availability, international reserves, export earnings and broader confidence in the economy. A redesigned note could therefore improve the physical credibility of Ghana’s currency while leaving its macroeconomic value determined by the same underlying economic fundamentals.
For the government and the Bank of Ghana, communication would be critical because currency changes tend to attract intense public scrutiny. Any formal refresh would need to make clear that new security features do not automatically invalidate existing notes, while also explaining whether old and refreshed banknotes would circulate together during a transitional period.
A phased approach could reduce disruption and give households, businesses and financial institutions time to adjust. It would also give the central bank an opportunity to reassess the durability, security and cost efficiency of Ghana’s physical currency architecture at a time when mobile money and other digital-payment platforms are steadily reducing reliance on cash in some segments of the economy.
Cash, however, remains deeply embedded in informal commerce, transport, rural markets and smaller retail transactions. Protecting the credibility of banknotes therefore remains relevant even as digital payments expand, particularly because trust in physical currency is foundational to wider confidence in the monetary system.
The broader test will be whether any refresh can achieve stronger security without imposing unnecessary costs or generating public uncertainty. Mr Mahama’s comments have now placed the issue firmly on the policy agenda, but the more consequential next step lies with the Bank of Ghana, which would have to explain what would change, how the transition would work and why the economic benefits justify the cost.
