Ghana's cedi currency was redenominated on Tuesday, shedding four zeros, in a move intended to make life easier for shoppers and business people fed up of carrying large bundles of cash that make them easy prey for thieves.
One new cedi - a name derived from the local word for the cowrie shells once used as currency in West Africa - is worth 10,000 old cedis and is divided into 100 pesewas.
Bouts of hyper-inflation over the past three decades have forced the West African nation to issue progressively higher-denomination notes, but inflation and the cedi's exchange rate have stabilised in the last few years.
"The redenomination is intended to make a legacy of the past history of high inflation and macroeconomic instability," said Alex Bernasko, who chairs a committee set up by the Bank of Ghana to organise the change.
New "Ghana cedi" notes, which will circulate with the old cedi for the next six months, will make it easier for people to withdraw and carry large sums of cash and reduce theft, he said. The new cedi's largest note is now 50 new cedis or about $50. Previously it was 20,000 old Ghana cedis or barely $2.
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