Rush for new Ghana cedi notes at T'di

Takoradi, July 03, GNA - Many Ghanaians queued at commercial banks within Sekondi Takoradi metropolis on Tuesday anxious to access the new Ghana cedi notes.

Officials of Ghana commercial Bank (GCB) however failed to open early and most of their clients had to wait until 9:30 am before business transactions began.

Many people including school children, the youth and elderly could be seen exchanging their old cedi notes for the new ones at GCB and Agricultural Development Bank.

Those who could not easily covert the old currency to the new currency relied on conversion charts displayed at the banks. At GCB, a staff detailed to receive deposits could not convert the old currency to the new and had confrontation with some of the customers who accused her for not taking the education on the re-denomination exercise serious.

She was therefore compelled to direct people with the new currencies to another officer for assistance.

At ADB the banking hall was filled to capacity while their ATM was out of order.

At Pro-Credit Bank, National Investment Bank, Pra and Ahantaman Rural Banks were filled to capacity.

However, some of the banks were swift with their transactions and people rushed there to change some old currencies for new ones. Some taxi drivers commended management of Bank of Ghana for the sizes and colours of the new currency.

Ghana News Agency investigations revealed that most of the banks were paying out only one and five new Ghana cedi notes and coins to their customers.

Most of the bank officials said this was to enable the public understand and use the lower denominations before the larger denominations were released.