The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has urged the public to ensure proper handling of the country’s currency to enhance integrity, confidence and trust to boost its functionality.

This, the BoG, said would help reduce the cost of issuing new currency into circulation and facilitating counterfeit detection.

Mr Dominic Owusu, the Head of the Currency Management Department of the BoG, gave the advice during a tour of the Currency Department as part of activities to mark the Ghana Heritage Month.

The participants were taken through the processing and shredding unit of the Currency Department to educate them on the BoG currency management operations and its Clean Note Policy (CNP).

Mr Owusu, in his remarks, underscored the importance of the use of purses and wallets to keep the currency neat and prevent it from mutilating.

Mr Owusu said the crumpling and squeezing of the bank notes affected the garnishing on them to protect the notes from humidity.

He stressed that the entire citizenry must help preserve the country’s currency and save the cost of destruction and replacement.

According to him, the currency reflected the country’s heritage and symbol of national identity.

The Head of the Currency Management Department of BOG urged the public to send their torn and unfit bank notes to the banks so they could be taken out of circulation.

Mr Owusu warned the public and traders from rejecting the one and five pesewas.

“All the currencies issued by the BoG continued to be legal tender and hence the citizens must accept them, ” he stated.

Mr Owusu urged the public to use the country’s currencies for only economic transactions, saying any other use such as using the currency for decoration and spraying it on people during functions was illegal.

He said Ghana currently lacked the capacity to print money locally and besides it was not economically viable to do so.

He explained that the quantity of money printed every year was forecasted along international standards and based on among others the growth of the economy and growing population.

To ensure the circulation of bank notes at predetermined and acceptable standards, remove unfit notes from circulation and combat counterfeit notes, Mr Owusu stated that the BoG in 2010 began implementing a CNP.

He said the objective of the CNP was to ensure confidence, integrity and trust in the Ghanaian currency.

The Head of the Currency Management Department said it was to withdraw and replace unfit currency from circulation and also combat counterfeit.

On counterfeit currency notes in circulation, Mr Owusu said the menace had been on a reducing trend since 2010.

He said Ghana was recording 7/1,000,000 counterfeit notes which was far below 100/1,000,000 which was considered serious if a country recorded such level of counterfeit notes in circulation.