Nigerian company claims it will print Ghana currency next year

A Nigerian security printing company is claiming it would from next year print Ghana’s currency, the cedi.

‘The Daily Independent’ newspaper of Nigeria reports that the Managing Director of Nigerian Security Printing & Minting (NSPM), Joseph Ugbo made the revelation before Nigeria’s House Committee on Banking and Currency in Abuja, Nigeria Wednesday March 4, 2015.

Mr. Ugbo also added that the company would be printing the currencies of Ivory Coast and other West African countries.

But ghanabusinessnews.com checks at the Bank of Ghana drew a blank. Calls to NSPM’s Lagos and Abuja offices also yielded no response on the specific matter. In each instance, the two men who received the calls said they knew nothing about the deal, however, the man at the Abuja office said senior officials were in a meeting, and asked that we left our phone number, but as at the time of publishing this story we have not heard from NSPM.

Meanwhile, some sources familiar with printing currencies have said the claim is doubtful, because a Nigerian printing house’s security can’t be trusted.

The source added that Ghana usually prints its currencies in Europe or the Americas.

Some Nigerian journalists that were contacted simply laughed off the claim, saying, “We haven’t even started printing our own currency yet.”

Another source in Ghana’s banking industry, also doubting the claim indicated that, if anything at all, there might be some discussion on that possibility at the ‘rudimentary level’.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi