BoG spends double on currency printing in 2023

Ghana’s financial woes continue to rise as the Bank of Ghana (BoG) spends a lot of money on printing new currencies.

The central bank paid a whooping GH¢675.4 million to print currencies in 2023, a 107.4% increase over the GH¢325.64 million recorded in 2022.

This was contained in the BoG 2023 Annual Report and Financial Statement.

The report also said the apex bank spent GH¢7.32 million in 2023 on other currency management operations, as against GH¢6.54 million in 2022.

Agency fees stood at GH¢6.136 million in 2023, as against GH¢4.75 million the previous year.

This put the total currency issue expense in 2023 at ¢688.87 million.

The report also indicated that in 2023, BoG recorded a loss of GH¢10.5 billion Ghana cedis.

This, however, represents a significant improvement over the GH¢60.8 billion Ghana cedis recorded in 2022.

The loss is primarily attributed to an increase in total interest expenses on its open market operations.

The Bank of Ghana added that the combination of an increase in total income and a reduction in operating expenses led to a total loss position of GH¢10.6 billion.

On income, BoG maintained that the total group income generated in 2023 was GH¢8.8 billion, while total costs associated with monetary operations amounted to GH¢ 8.4 billion.

It said that the positive policy solvency factor of GH¢0.4 billion in 2023 indicates that it continues to be policy solvent, just as it was in 2022 when a policy solvency factor of GH¢4.27 billion was recorded.

BoG indicated that GH¢44.55 billion were in circulation in 2023, as against about ¢36.07 billion in 2022.

Concerning deposits in various currencies, GH¢29.7 billion cedis were cedi denominated, GH¢16.9 billion in dollars, GH¢988 million in pounds and GH¢4.68 billion in euros. Other currencies were estimated at ¢25.45 million.

In terms of the notes in circulation, GH¢12.32 billion of the GH¢200 note was in circulation in 2023.

This is compared with GH¢9.87 million the previous year.

For the GH¢100 note, GH¢14.57 billion were in circulation in 2023, as against GH¢8.69 billion in 2022.

The GH¢50, GH¢20 and GH¢10 notes in circulation in 2023 were GH¢8.06 billion, GH¢5.06 billion and GH¢2.46 billion respectively.

On the other hand, GH¢1.09 billion, GH¢31.6 million and GH¢11.27 million of the GH¢5, GH¢2 and GH¢1 notes were in circulation in 2023.

For the coins, GH¢231.02 million of the GH¢2 was in circulation in 2023, as against GH¢207.49 million of the GH¢1.

About the 50 pesewa, 20 pesewa and 10 pesewa coins, GH¢253.56 million, GH¢120.99 million and GH¢54.64 million were in circulation last year.