New Money

I've been away for a bit...yours truely has to work for pay and some crazy hectic work came up... in Ghana... so sorry for the silence... i'm back now... with the most publicized story in Ghana right now....

If you have ever been to Ghana, you will be aware that carrying a huge amount of Ghanaian currency is normal. The Ghanaian currency is denominated in large numbers, with the smallest note being a one thousand cedi note; in Ghana you are easily a millionaire… in Cedi mind you.

In Ghana, a bottle of coca cola goes for 8000 cedis, and a plate of chicken and chips goes for 40,000 cedis in Papaye (a popular fast food joint in Accra), one American dollar ($1) exchanges for 9300 Cedis as at today.

The size of the currency makes business transactions somewhat difficult in Ghana, with automated currency machines having to dispense more currency notes; and high volume business executed with large amounts of cash which are cumbersome to carry.
When you are coming from an economy where ‘ten thousand’ is not something you would buy a drink with; transacting business is particularly difficult.

So in a bid to simplify business transactions in the country, make things easier for those of us who just can’t count :-), The Bank of Ghana has decided to redenominate the currency.

Now what is that?
Simply that the Bank is bringing out a new set of currencies called the ’Ghana Cedi’, which will give the same value as the present currency but be in less quantity. The 10,000 Cedi (C10,000) will be replaced by one Ghana Cedi (1GhC) which is also equal to a hundred Ghana pesewa (Ghp); the 20,000 Cedi (C20,000) will be replaced by two Ghana Cedi (2GhC) and so on.
If you are extremely fast with figures, then you will have noticed that the bank is simply taking away 4 zeros from the old Cedi to make the new Ghana Cedi!

The highest note currently in use in Ghana is the 20,000 Cedi which exchanges for a little over 2 dollars. The bank is introducing the new currency 1 July, 2007 which will be spent concurrently with the old currency for 6 months before that is phased out. In the true Ghana style there will be a public holiday to celebrate this notable event (Ghanaians are still the most nationalistic I have ever met… it’s the country where wearing the national flag is a normal thing!... now that’s a story for another day).

So after the 1st of July, a bottle of coke in Ghana will go for 0.8GhC or 80Ghp under the new currency (now that’s more like it). Also after the redenomination, the highest currency will not be an equivalent of the highest note now – the 20,000 Cedi but will be 50Ghana Cedi the equivalent of 500,000Cedis today!, the government is not only changing the currency, they are introducing a currency note that will exchange for 55 dollars if the exchange rate remains the same! This means people can carry more money; say 20pieces of a 50Ghana Cedi in a flat wallet which is equivalent to $1100, 10million Cedis today!... now I’m not sure that is a good idea…

Wont that affect the economy adversely?.... wont all of ‘these’ mess the economy up? lead to inflation?, little money in circulation at first and then an explosion of it, wont the new currency lose value?... and so on and so forth… the questions in mind are endless.

The Ghanaian government is assuring us all that the value remains the same; we will only be carrying less cash for the same transactions, you will still be able to make the same obtain the same purchases, products and services under the new currency as you could under the old and the Ghanaian Government is doing it’s very best to educate the people on the redenomination exercise.

I think its succeeding pretty much; the slogan you hear everywhere: the media, newspapers and the public is ‘the value remains the same’; and the Ghanaian people in true nationalism appear to have taken the government at its word.

Sometimes I wonder if the people are chanting the mantra ‘the value remains th same’ to better reassure themselves that the value had better remain the same… somewhere in my mind, if i lived in Ghana, i would probably have converted all my meager funds to dollars or pounds now... just in case... you never know...now don’t mind me… I’m just thinking aloud.

Anyway, in 38 days, Ghana will be spending a new currency, and if you are regular visitor to Ghana returning after July 2007, do take note, and check the currency you hand over when transacting your business… what ever that is!
So guys the count down is on….and remember… “the value remains the same”
Or so I hope!

Baba’s Will

The anti-climax of the elections and the way everybody has suddenly gone back to business like a child bored with a new toy is disheartening…I truly believe now that Nigerians are like a many time heartbroken woman, whose 7th lover has run off again.
People trooped out for the gubernatorial elections – educated and uneducated alike in the hope that for once their votes would count… and they went as far as ensuring the integrity of the counting process… trailing electoral officers around town.
Alas! At the end of it all, reports of massive rigging fill the air and the wrong names are announced to power… So on the 21st of April, a large percentage of Nigerian boycotted the Presidential elections… their hearts were broken again, and the ‘its no use’ attitude was back in them.The absence of the people they intend to rule did not stop the elections…
Goats, chickens, lizards and the political touts… who graciously voted and stuffed ballot boxes were counted…and Yesterday Governor Musa Yar’Adua won the elections… which comes as no surprise to any of us… he appears to be the lesser of all the evils canvassing for the Nigerian souls.

We are neither delighted nor sad…we are only heart-broken

Now that the elections are over, and Baba’s will has been done, shall we be allowed to rest from the various political machinations and Machiavellian intents that have plaqued the corridors of power? Or is there more to come?... will it be a pandora’s box of evil discoveries.

Will Baba heed line 7 of this apt prayer and let sleeping dogs lie?

‘Our Baba who art in Aso Rock
Balogun of Owu is thy name.
Thy handover shall soon come
thy will has been done in Umaru and Goodluck.
Leave us this May 29th,your departure date.
Lead us not into anarchy.
Forgive Turaki his disloyalty as we forgave your failed third term plot
Deliver him from INEC hammer
for Otta is thy destination,
with all that is thine
thy bag and thy baggage
forever and ever
just go ooo
Amen’

Or will he continue to raise a storm in a teacup?

Like the Nigerians that we are we shall seat and out wait them… sooner or later their plans will unfold…

I love Naija

I have come to the realization that a lot of people know so little of their home country Nigeria, so today I have put together some salient ‘need to know points’ so this is an opportunity to reaffirm what you know and increase your knowledge of what was called ‘General knowledge’ when we were in school!

· Total landmass - approximately 923,768 square kilometres (356,669 sq. miles),
· Location - West Africa, 10° North and 8° East, bound by Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, Republic of Benin in the west, and the Atlantic Ocean in the south.
· Climate - Tropical, arid in north mean maximum temperatures of 30°C - 32°C (south) and 33°C - 35°C (north).
· Sub regions - The country is divided into 36 states and a Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
· Population - Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a population of over 120 million and estimated at about 132 million in 2006. (just looking at Lagos I am not surprised).
· And it is growing at a rate of 2.4%!
· Lagos State accounts for about 15 million people (see?... I told you!... Eko for show! Eko o ni baje!)
· Other rapidly growing cities in Nigeria are Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, Aba, Onitsha and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
· Urbanisation - 57% of Nigeria’s population resides in the rural areas (fancy that!)
· Poverty - 60% of Nigerians live under the poverty line (that’s less than $1 a day! what percentage are all the rich folks in VGC, Ikoyi, Femi Okunnu Estate, Lekki and Ikeja GRA…. And all the hummer and IVTEC driving peeps?)
· Unemployment – 5.8% of Nigerians are unemployed (I bet its way more than that… I bet someone got the decimal points wrong and its 58 or something… just kidding!)
· Labour force – 48.99million people make up the Nigerian labour force (see what I said about the unemployment figures, will 40 million people be toiling away and the economy still be this crazy?...I think so!)
· Ethnic Groups - There are over than 250 ethnic groups; the following are the most populous and politically influential: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%
· Literacy - 68% of Nigerians are literate (not bad Not bad!)
· Median Age - 55% of Nigerians are between the ages of 15 & 64 (no wonder our system is so totally juvenile!)
· Life Expectancy – this is 47.66% for women and 46.52 for the men! (so ladies be nice to the fellas they are likely to die before you do!)
· HIV/AIDS Prevalence - 3.4million people are living with HIV/AIDS (whao! You just can’t go spreading the love you know, one has to spread it carefully! real carefully! :-))
· Prevalent Diseases – Malaria, Typhoid Fever, Hepatitis A, bacterial & protozoan diarrhea and meningococcal meningitis (whao! You can’t even go spreading the hug sef… with meningococcal meningitis and hepatitis A floating around - even their names sound deadly!)
· The legal system - based on English common law, Islamic law (in 12 northern states), and traditional law
· The legislative system – the National Assembly is bicameral and consists of Senate -109 seats (3 from each state plus 1 from Abuja) and House of Representatives - 360 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms.

There will be more information for you to digest soon!

My sources are: The Economic Intelligence Unit Report on Nigeria 2006 CIA World Fact Book