Last weekend there were a number of news items relating to the new GhC50 note which was introduced in August. Apparently the old ones were not being accepted by some traders and government agencies as they had ceased to be legal tender on 1st October.
That seemed strange to me as I had been to the bank to withdraw some money on 4th October and been given the old notes. As this money was to pay duty on a car we decided that it would be better if we had the new notes as we didn't want our money to be refused adding to the bureaucratic problems.
As soon as the bank opened on the Monday morning I went back to the bank to return the money and ask for new notes. I handed it over to the teller who seemed very surprised to hear that it was no longer legal tender and told me I needed to speak to the manager. He sort of confirmed that I should change it and told me I would have to pay it back into my account and then take out the same amount. I thought this was very strange as all I wanted to do was exchange the notes I had for new notes. Anyway I duly filled in the paying in slip and went back to the teller who proceeded to tell me that I now needed to write a cheque to withdraw the money. As I hadn't brought my cheque book I protested and pointed out that all I wanted to do was exchange the money for new notes and thought all this process was completely unnecessary as it was their problem as they had issued the notes in the first place. After another short phone call the manager allowed her to just give me new notes for the old ones. Of course they weren't the new GhC50 but GhC20!
When I got home I was listening to the news and heard that the Bank of Ghana had now extended the time when the old notes were legal tender as there were not enough new notes in the system!
