Counterfeiting and possession of counterfeit banknotes are punishable by law.

During a press conference held during a tour of the currency processing centre as part of Ghana Heritage Month, the Head of Currency Management Department, Dominic Owusu, encouraged the public to be mindful of the banknotes’ features to help achieve zero-counterfeit targets.

“In Ghana, counterfeit has never become a problem. The international threshold is 100 pieces per million banknotes, and we are far below that, as we are around 7 banknotes per million,” he disclosed.

“Despite that, what we want to encourage the public to be aware of the security features on these notes,” he added.

Dominic Owusu further urged handlers of banknotes to be more prudent in their transactions to preserve the integrity and trust of the cedi.

“The fact is that, for every country, the banknote becomes the business card of the citizens. The image of the country rests on the quality of the banknotes in circulation,” he stressed.

He explained that a well-handled currency not only reflects national pride but also serves as a tourism driver for the country.

“And one interesting thing is that clean banknotes also promote tourism,” he added.