Bank of Ghana introduces redesigned notes
Growth not charity should be motivation for
fighting poverty - UNCTAD
Bank of Ghana introduces redesigned notes
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 September 2002 - The Central Bank would as from Monday, 7 October introduce new 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 cedi notes. The new notes, according to Mr Emmanuel Asiedu-Mante, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) was part of "efforts to enhance the security features of the currency notes and in keeping with sophistication in technology."
The Deputy Governor made this known in Accra on Thursday. He gave the main features of the new notes as that the existing crest watermark bears underneath it a bold electrotype feature reading 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 cedis.
"This is clearly discerned when viewed against light," he added. He said part of the old design had been replaced with a new anti-colour copier feature, saying, this would display a distortion of the design on a banknote, which had been reduced on a colour copier.
The new notes bear the signature of the new Governor, Dr Paul A. Acquah. Mr Asiedu-Mante explained that there was no truth in the perception that the new notes would lead to increased money supply since, "they will circulate side by side with the existing notes some of which are very mutilated and are being withdrawn as and when we have them."
The Deputy-Governor said the bank had put in place a programme to retrieve old and mutilated notes to take off pressure of increased money supply in the system. On the introduction of the 10,000 and 20,000 cedi denominations, Mr Asiedu-Mante said they would be released in November, to coincide with the new cocoa season.
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Growth not charity should be motivation for
fighting poverty - UNCTAD
Accra (Greater Accra) 27 September 2002 - A United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) study has stressed the need for a fresh and bolder approach, with growth rather than charity as the motivation for recasting international rules in the fight against poverty. Entitled "From Adjustment to Poverty Reduction: What Is New," the report launched on Thursday said that macroeconomic policies should be designed with growth in the forefront.
"This means making monetary and fiscal regimes a good deal more sensitive to the goal of raising productive investment," it said. The study noted that access to developed countries' markets would remain essential if African economies were to grow out of poverty.
It said despite some recent initiatives to improve trade, barriers were still excessive. The report also touched on the huge financing gap facing African economies, noting; "the debt overhang had persisted despite the longstanding efforts of the international community to design acceptable programmes and timetables".
It said the recent G-8 Summit promise to reverse the decline in resources, fell well short of the additional 10 billion dollar-aid needed annually to kick-start African growth. The report, which also examined 27 Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in Africa concluded that macroeconomic and structural adjustment policy content of the papers had not changed from those that had been espoused in the past.
"There is no fundamental departure from the kind of policy advice espoused under the Washington Consensus." The study welcomed the attention given in the papers to raising standards of education and health care but warned against the redirecting of public spending to social sectors at the expense of other types of public investment.
The report said increased public expenditure across all levels remained a surest way of reducing income inequality although differentiated subsidies and user fees and a progressive tax system would ensure that the rich paid for the provision of such services.
While welcoming the greater sensitivity to governance and institutional features in the poverty papers, the study, however, warned of imposition of a common institutional standard on countries with varying conditions since this was likely to be counterproductive.
"And the idea that fighting corruption by diminishing government resources and responsibilities will bring the desired improvements is off-target, the study contended and called for "a focus on quality government, not smaller government."
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