The Enquirer's undercover investigations have revealed that Bank of Ghana has creamed off all old cedi coins running into trillions including those preserved since independence and secretly sold them to an Indian company, in a transaction which insiders say lack transparency.
The Enquirer's undercover reporters on a stake out inside the Tema Harbor witnessed happy Indians supervising the packing of the coins into containers to an unknown destination.
The paper gathered at the Harbour that the first consignments of forty five containers of Ghana's old coins were expected to leave the shores of this nation by yesterday Thursday 4 September, 2008.
The operation which is being carried out at Shed ‘Ten B' at the Tema Harbour was also being monitored by panicking officials of the Bank of Ghana praying that details of the transaction should not bounce to the fore.
Undercover reporters picked up that the Indian company to which the coins have been secretly sold is B.K. Singh Consolidated Coin Limited and that DELMAS shipping agency has been engaged by the Indian company to cart the coins away.
Whilst on one of the stake-outs around !0:47am Wednesday September 3, 2008, a Bank of Ghana vehicle with registration number GV519V arrived at shed 'B' loaded with some officials.
The officials quickly fraternized with three Indians who were using a Honda vehicle with registration the number GW3117X. The business of the day began.
The Shed was opened and the packaging of the coins started while another BoG vehicle with registration number GV 1041 Y carted away boxes that had been emptied back to Accra.
The paper gathered during the investigations that the exercise started last Monday and is expected to last until the last coin purchased by the Indians is shipped out of the country.
Meanwhile, officials at the BoG have raised eyebrows over the manner the coins were sold to the Indian company.
According to them, the selling of the coins to the Indians was shrouded in secrecy as many expatriate companies that expressed interest to purchase the coins were turned away with flimsy excuses. However, The Enquirer gathered at the Tema port that some top government officials fronted for the Indians to buy the coins with cheeky ease.
The Indians who were beaming with smiles throughout the packaging were said to be the last people to express interest in the coins but strangely, they were offered the deal.
An official of the BoG was overheard by The Enquirer saying that the coins for now are of no use but would create confusion should some media men get to know that they have been sold.
The redenomination exercise raised a lot of controversies among the Ghanaian public when the BoG came out with the cost involved in the whole exercise.
The bank, was however, silent over what was to come out of the sale of the coins, a situation officials at the bank say is not the best. Again, even though the sale was not publicized, senior bank of Ghana officials in their personal capacities contacted foreign companies sparking an outpour of letters. The paper was told that there have been a number of reminders to officials of the BoG who were directly involved in the redenornination exercise to come out with the figure of how much is to be realized from the sale of the coins.
