The public enlightenment campaign on the re-denomination of Ghana's national currency, the Cedi, contains the much repeated claim that even though the figures are changed, "the value remains the same".
The intention is apparently to assure the public that the prices of goods will not increase because of the exercise.
However the truth cannot be hidden; the new Ghana Cedi is a much more valuable piece of currency than the old ultra inflationary one.
The fact that what ¢10,000 bought before can now be purchased with only GH¢1.00, is in itself an expression of the restoration of credibility to the financial profile of the national economy and that in very real terms, effectively revalues the national currency.
The financial credibility that this re-denomination exercise promotes in transactions undertaken in the new currency, renders it immediately more desirable to hold and spend than its predecessor.
This is so not only within Ghana's borders but also in other parts of the sub-region, especially its immediate neighbours such as Burkina Faso and Togo where cross-border trade is an important aspect of public endeavour.
The raised value of the Cedi against the CFA, the currency used in these neighbouring countries, cannot be discountenanced and the increased convenience of carrying fewer bills in order to purchase products or trade in items and services that can be purchased with Ghanaian currency is a powerful incentive for speculation in, and ownership of, the new currency.
The re-denomination of the Ghana Cedi is an exercise in national revitalisation that' surpasses and supplants the process of economic management alone.
It impacts positively on the economic worth of the nation's citizens while also generating confidence and economic sanity in the fiscal sector.
It enables the banks in the nation to maintain rational records of transactions in figures that are less inflationary and improbable than those that were extant when even ordinary-domestic expenditure processed through the banks had to be computed in billions and even trillions of cedis daily because of the high denominations of currency notes.
This reform alone imposes a new sense of propriety on the financial profile of the nation that helps to upgrade the value of the national currency.
In this sense, revaluation should be seen as a positive step to control inflationary trends rather than a means of increasing the prices of goods bought with the local currency.
The latter form of revaluation, which is what the promoters of the currency redenomination exercise appear to be hoping to avoid by declaring that "the value remains the same", will only occur if the exercise is not carefully controlled.
Adherence to the practice of rounding off prices to avoid having to give customers small change must be discouraged by all means.
To this end, the restoration of the value of the fractional currency, the pesewa, and the relevance of coins must be encouraged and properly explained to the ordinary people of Ghana, and the consumer price index of both imported and locally produced goods must be closely monitored and policed to ensure that creeping inflation caused by the rounding off practice does not become the convention in the marketplace.
Although this redenomination exercise might be regarded as being a part of the incumbent government's efforts to liberalise the national economy, control mechanisms must be put in place in the early stages of the exercise to ensure that the collection of the old currency and the distribution of the new currency is carried out with care and with the barest minimum of irregularities.
The restoration of probity and sanity to internal financial transactions should be seen as one of the cardinal objectives of the reform exercise and this will revalue the process of economic intercourse in the nation.
There is a tendency in most societies, especially in poor countries, for the public to take advantage of any reform of the fiscal process to promote enhanced opportunities for profiteering.
This trend must be effectively discouraged by the Ghanaian authorities during the redenomination exercise in order to strengthen the credibility of the currency as a resource that promotes the values of national consensus.
For this reason, the meaning of the statement that "the value remains the same" must be clarified in all the public enlightenment initiatives that are connected to the redenomination exercise.
It must be pointed out that the cost of goods will not be increased simply because the numerical value of the currency has been rationalised.
The promotional key should be the fact that things which were priced in large numbers and are now priced in smaller figures cost the same as they did before the exercise.
The authorities should strengthen the campaign of public enlightenment continuously throughout the period of implementation.
They must constantly upgrade the strategies for encouraging Ghanaians to conduct their financial transactions in the new currency without always referring to the old denominations as the main vocabulary of such transactions.
In order to bring this to fruition, it will help if those who create the public enlightenment campaign for the new currency identify some popular services and goods that have newly denominated prices but which have not changed in cost.
They should highlight the fact that some public transport fares for example have remained the same but now cost a few pesewas rather than thousands of cedis.
They should also do the same for popular food items that ordinary citizens must consume regularly and which now cost the same but are priced in newly designated and smaller amounts.
The focus of such a campaign should be the common denominator of interest that all Ghanaians have, regardless of their status, which is that the new currency should enhance the value and convenience of the conduct of their daily business by enabling them to calculate prices more easily than in the past.
When this reality takes hold, Ghanaians will be convinced that indeed the new currency has brought a new sense of value to their daily lives without inflating their cost of living.
This perception will indicate that the positive revaluation of the Ghana Cedi is the main consequence of the re-denomination exercise.
Linsay Barrett, a popular JamaicanlNigerian author, photo-journalist and broadcaster lives in Nigeria but has traced his maternal ancestry to Ghana..
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