Thursday, November 16, 2006

A millionaire for a week

After a week in Ghana I discovered that being a millionaire does not necessarily mean that you are wealthy as I imagine people in many African and South American countries already know. At the time of my visit the exchange rate was US$1=9200 Cedi. This results in some rather bizarre transactions. A meal in a resturant could cost 1Million Cedi, an evening out having a few drinks will cost several hundred thousand cedi, a taxi ride between 30 thousand and 100 thousand Cedi...

Amazingly the largest note available in Ghana at the time of my visit was 20000 Cedi and banks will often supply your cash requirements with only 5000 Cedi notes.... this results in carrying large wads of money around. A case in point was our sunday buffet lunch for 4 people which resulted in a bill of over 1 Million Cedi... fortunately Darren came to the rescue with a bag full of money:

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