Background
Effective 1 July 2007, the current currency of the country, the Cedi (¢), will be redenominated to the Ghana Cedi (GH¢), such that ten thousand Cedis will be equivalent to one Ghana Cedi. The re-denomination is not expected to affect the intrinsic value of the currency - “the value will be the same”. Two of the reasons given by the Central Bank for the re-denomination are the increasing difficulty in maintaining accounting and statistical records; and problems with accounting and data processing software. For most business enterprises, such an exercise is expected to result in significant cost savings on the one hand but some challenges on the other.
Cost savings
The cost savings will be derived in two main ways. Firstly, the elimination of four zeros reduces the time taken to input financial data and time spent by management in reviewing the same. Currently, when reporting financial and accounting data, many businesses do so in thousands of Cedis or millions of Cedis in order to gain some efficiency in managing the information. The second main area of cost saving relates to the cost incurred in customizing standard packages that are purchased by businesses. 

Most of the current accounting packages are developed in jurisdictions where values, at a maximum, tend to be in millions. The present situation in Ghana, where some companies are recording values of trillions of cedis, requires further customization of such packages to widen data fields. Of course, this comes at an additional cost to businesses. Thus, an effort to reduce the zeros and limit the extent of customization of standard packages will be of great benefit to businesses, as it will bring about simplification of financial data entry and also simplify the reporting of financial information and processing of business transactions.

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