“In line with international best practice, commemorative banknotes are not subject to upgrades,” the Bank of Ghana said in a statement issued Tuesday evening.

In keeping with its commitment to improve the standard of Ghana's currency, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Monday May 6 began the circulation of the newly upgraded cedi notes.

However, there was a slow start to the circulation exercise as many of the banks in Accra and some of the regional capitals did not receive the upgraded notes for circulation, while a number of customers also indicated that they were unaware of the decision to circulate the cedi notes.

The affected denominations are the one, five, 10, 20 and 50 cedi banknotes which have been given some specific public security features to match the evolving technological landscape.

The move by the central bank to upgrade the banknotes is aimed at improving the security, durability and machine readability of the notes, and also reduce the many cases of counterfeits in the system.

Explaining the reason behind the slow start of the circulation, the Head of Communications of the BoG, Mrs Esi Hammond, told the Daily Graphic that it was a demand matter.

“Once the banks do not need money to transact business now, they will not go for it so there is no need to rush,” she said.

She added that the enhanced notes were available at the BoG so as and when the banks decided to go for money to transact business, they would be released to them.