Keeping the Country’s Currency Notes Clean

GOOD CITIZENSHIP PRACTICES/PART ONE: KEEPING THE COUNTRY’S CURRENCY NOTES CLEAN

Since the adoption and introduction of the Cedis currency in July 1965, the Ghanaian government has spent millions of dollars every year on printing and replacing its worn-out currency notes and coins. According to experts, millions of US dollars are spent annually on printing these notes, and this cost increases whenever the currency is printed in higher denominations. Interestingly, in the business news of Thursday, July 12, 2012, it was indicated that it took a cost of $35 million US dollars for the country to print the new GH₵50 notes.

Our currency, just like our national flag, coat of arms, anthem, national pledge, national telephone code, seals, etc., form the emblems with which the country could easily be identified at all times and locations around the world. These emblems, when kept in good and easily identifiable conditions, speak volumes and make it possible for anyone who comes across them to have a fair idea of the country’s good preservation culture, therefore clearly justifying in an unequivocal dispensation the value placed on them.

Deplorably, there have been many instances when currency notes being given to us as change by either tror-tror drivers, mechanics, or market women look so dilapidated that one will surely have the urge to reject them instantly.

Other times too, we see our currency notes excessively and wrongly folded, with contact numbers, calculations, oil spots, fish stains, charcoal marks, deliberate cuts by beauticians, and many other forms of damages that are the results of serious ignorance on the part of the trespassers. Further, most of these individuals comprise not only market women and mechanics but also some elitist barons of the country, who, instead of championing the cause of properly handling the Cedis Notes, rather toss them anyhow in their pockets.

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The following suggestions could be observed in order to keep our currency notes clean:
1.) Being careful how one folds a currency note.
2.) Using a good wallet or purse that could keep notes straight or with just a single fold.
3.) Banks and financial institutions could launch “free wallet/purse” promotions to help champion the cause and also educate the general public on the benefits of this laudable practice.
4.) As much as possible, avoid giving out a note with the same hand one is eating with.
5.) Never cut, tear, or punch holes in a currency note.
6.) Avoid washing notes left in pockets while wearing clothes by carefully checking one’s pockets thoroughly.
7.) The notes are not diaries, writing pads, or contact holders. Resist the temptation to write on them.
8.) Educating students, children, market women, traders, beauticians, bar and shop owners, mechanics, labourers, and everyone else to value our currency notes and neatly keep them.
9.) Reporting any intentional damage to a note(s) one has witnessed to the police for action to be taken against the culprit(s).
Be a good citizen by joining the movement. Share to educate someone on this.

Keeping the Country’s Currency Notes Clean Is A Responsibility For Us All.

By: Officer Mensah Ebenezer Kweku, a.k.a. (The Patriot)
(+233) 020-885-7080
kcym2012@gmail.com