In a bid to realign the national currency – the Leone - with pricing of goods and services in the country, The Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) has minted sufficient coins to service the economy. The denomination of coins in circulation now according to the bank include One Cent, 5 cents, 10 Cents, 20 cents and 50 cents. BSL informed members of the public to contact their banks (Commercial and Community) as well as micro finance institutions to obtain these coins across the counter.

FS sources in the Money Market are of the opinion that the apex bank is concerned that 2 years after the redenomination of the national currency the use of coins is yet to gain currency.

“One of the aims of the redenomination of Sierra Leone's currency, from old Leones to new Leones, was to correct the perceived misalignment in the currency and pricing structure. However, nearly two years after the launch, smaller denominations like the 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, and 50 cent coins are noticeably absent from circulation”. This, according to him can partly be traced to ‘shortages’ occasioned by banks ceasing to issue coins to customers during withdrawals. “this development has not helped in making the coins useful in the ways the BSL had planned. Consequent upon which no item (products and services) is available at the denomination of our coins. This is very bad for the economy and it’s a fundamental reason most products are costly in the market”.

Mohamed Ganawa an Economics Teacher at the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra leone welcomed the move to ensure the use of coins in the economy saying it is a direction towards a sound economy. He allayed fears that the use of coins would reduced the value of the currency “In a sense when you say nominal value in Economics, you are saying that the value of a country’s currency in terms of its face value is going to be reduced but the real time value of it is going to be the same”.

Musa Bangay, Director of the Centre for Civic Education, noted that the shortage of coins has been responsible for driving up prices in the economy. “It has made coins practically obsolete in the market”, he said and highlighted the challenges it has posed in sectors like the transportation sector where consumers would need to exchange coins as change after transactions. He recalled instances where transportation fares were set at 4,500 Leones, but passengers often overpaid due to the lack of coins, further fuelling inflation. He expressed optimism that the reintroduction and circulation of coins in the country would help in restoring confidence and balance in the pricing structure in the marketplace.

“It would reduce overpayment and ease financial pressures on low-income earners who are mostly affected by the current situation whereby they have to buy at higher prices and also forgo their change after transactions”.

Speaking in same vein, Thaimu Tullah, journalist and Editor of the City Voice Newspapers is concerned about the reluctance of Sierra Leoneans to embrace the use of coins, ‘despite the significance importance of using coins in an economy as it’s done in other parts of the world’. He extolled the importance of coins in retail transactions, especially where exact payments are not possible using currency notes. Consequent upon which he said the unwholesome practice for many retailers and sellers of goods and services resorting to withholding customers’ money particularly in transactions such as in fuel purchases, where amounts as big as 500 Leones are retained illegally by retailers.

He reckoned that customers are ripped off to the tune of billions of leones on daily basis through such illegal withholding of their monies by retailers. He hailed the move by the BSL saying that circulation of coins would ensure that customers receive their rightful change after financial transactions. Adding: “It would foster a more efficient and fair economy”.

Most business owners, petty vendors and traders interviewed by FS on the use the coins however did not share the optimism expressed above; pointing to the need for financial literacy campaign in the economy to help educate the people on the moves by BSL and the government to achieve positive outcomes on the stabilization of the Leone. Many spoken to expressed concerns about what they called laborious process of collecting, sorting, and counting coins while some others simply do not believe it can affect prices in the market. Isatu Kamara, a trader in Big Market Freetown is not enthusiastic about the coins. The coins, she said would serve no purpose ‘because it will not cause reduction of prices of food items’. Usman Mansaray, a kekeh rider shared same sentiment; “these new coins will not be necessary in the transportation sector because the currency we are used to presently is the Leone note. How do you expect us to get use to the cents they are talking about?”