The Bank of Ghana spent a nominal GH¢3.50 billion issuing notes and coins over the eight years 2018 to 2025, its audited accounts show. That total is the cost of issuing cash in those years, not the bill for the new Heritage Series, which is not yet public. The Governor has said the Heritage cost will appear in the 2026 audited accounts.
The question was put on Friday 13 November. At a Minority press conference on the 2027 Budget, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Ranking Member of Parliament's Economy and Development Committee, asked: "How much has this exercise cost us?" He also asked: "What will it cost us to reprint those notes on which identities have been misrepresented?", according to 3News.
Modern Ghana carried the same demand and the same quotes. The Minority wants the Governor to appear before the House.
What the accounts show
Each year the Bank reports "currency issue expenses": agency fees, notes printing (and, from 2024, coin minting) and other currency costs. In nominal cedis, the line was GH¢153.6 million in 2018.
It rose to GH¢688.9 million in 2023 and peaked at GH¢1.01 billion in 2024. In 2025 it fell 53% to GH¢471.4 million.
Printing alone shows the swing. It cost GH¢675.4 million in 2023, GH¢986.9 million in 2024 and GH¢277.6 million in 2025, a fall of 72%. But "other currency expenses" rose 12.5 times, from GH¢14.7 million to GH¢183.2 million.
The Bank's accounts do not explain the rise. The 2025 statements do not name the Heritage Series, and this line should not be read as the cost of the redesign.
Scale helps. In 2025 the bill was about GH¢5.62 for every GH¢1,000 of currency in circulation (GH¢83.8 billion at end-December), the lowest ratio in the eight years.
In 2019 it was GH¢19.19. The line was 1.2% of the Bank's GH¢37.9 billion total operating expenses in 2025.
The 2020 and 2022 figures are the audited comparatives in the 2021 and 2023 annual reports. These are ordinary issuance costs in nominal cedis, not the Heritage Series bill, which is not yet public. Source: Bank of Ghana annual reports 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024, and 2025 financial statements, currency issue expenses notes.
Why the Heritage cost is not in these figures
The Bank's accounting policy says note-printing and coin-minting costs, including ordering, freight, insurance and handling, are first recorded as other assets and "released to profit or loss when the currency is sold to the central Bank". Spending on a new series can therefore fall across more than one year's accounts.
The 2025 statements do not name the Heritage Series. Our earlier story on the GHS 70.4 billion of cash outside banks in August listed the print run and cost as unknown; that remains the case.
In September, Governor Johnson Asiama said the new notes would support "more efficient and cost-effective currency management". 3News reports that he said the spending would be in the 2026 audited accounts, and repeated at the 27 October policy briefing that it was in the Bank's budget. Modern Ghana carries the same account.
Based on when the last two sets were published, those accounts would be expected in mid-2027. The Bank was not asked for fresh comment today, and no new Bank of Ghana statement on the Minority's demand was found.
What people on X are saying
@tv3_ghana led with the Minority's question on Friday evening. Today @modernghanaweb carried the same demand.
Much of the wider chatter is about the faces on the notes, covered in our GHS 50 portrait story and the Bank's later clarification.
What it means
The record gives a scale, not an answer. The GH¢3.50 billion is a nominal sum of eight years of ordinary issuance costs.
The two heaviest recent printing years, 2023 and 2024, cost GH¢675.4 million and GH¢986.9 million. Whether the Heritage order is larger depends on the print run, the unit price and the exchange rate, none of which the Bank has published.
Limitations
Figures are nominal cedis, not adjusted for inflation. The unrounded 2018-25 total is GH¢3,500.6 million, which rounds to GH¢3.50 billion. The 2020 and 2022 figures are the audited comparatives in the 2021 and 2023 annual reports; the original reports for those two years were not opened.
The 2023 totals were unchanged in the 2024 report, and the 2024 totals were unchanged in the 2025 statements. Graphic notes the Bank contracts printing to overseas security printers, so exchange rates, order volumes and shipping affect the bill. Printing years do not match issue years.
The 2018 to 2023 notes say "notes printing"; from 2024 the line adds coin minting. Media reports of the 2025 fall differ slightly (Graphic: "more than 54 per cent"); the accounts give 53.3%.
Sources
- 3News, The Minority wants the BoG Governor before Parliament over the new cedi notes, 13 Nov 2026
- Modern Ghana, Minority demands Bank of Ghana Governor appear before Parliament over new cedi notes, 14 Nov 2026
- Bank of Ghana, Report and Financial Statements 31 December 2025 (note 15; profit or loss statement; currency in circulation; note-printing policy)
- Bank of Ghana, Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024 (note 8)
- Bank of Ghana, 2023 Annual Report and Financial Statements (note 8)
- Bank of Ghana, Annual Report 2021 (note 8)
- Bank of Ghana, Annual Report 2019 (note 8)
- Bank of Ghana, press release on 2024 financial statements, 5 Jun 2025
- Bank of Ghana, Statement by the Governor on the Heritage Series, 24 Sep 2026
- Graphic Online, Bank of Ghana slashes cost of printing money by more than half, 5 May 2026
- MyJoyOnline, BoG cuts currency issuance cost to GH¢471m
- StatsGH, GHS 70.4 billion sat outside banks in August as Heritage cedi notes near circulation
- StatsGH, GHS 50 note portrait disputed by Theodosia Okoh's nephew
- StatsGH, Bank of Ghana Clarifies Theodosia Okoh Portrait on GH¢50 Heritage Banknote
- X posts: https://x.com/tv3_ghana/status/2121327683791720590 https://x.com/modernghanaweb/status/2121619726355087382