“When last you use/see this coin dem en watin u buy with am??” This was the question asked in a popular blog post that generated several comments and likes.
In the comment section, somebody responded “they no longer exist. My biggest problem is that I have many of them, but they cannot pass.”
Another described the use of coins in Sierra Leone as a long story, saying “we heard about coins the last time but we did not see them” – talking about the new coins that the government said it produced during the redenomination process that are yet to be seen in circulation.
This was an online conversation in 2023, just a year after the government introduced the redenominated currency which saw the last three zeros of the existing Leones stripped off.
For decades, coins have been vital in daily transactions in the country, often used for small-value transactions, especially in informal sectors like markets, street vendors, and public transportation.
Announcing the change of currency, Bank of Sierra Leone had assured the public the new money would be circulated along with a huge amount of coins equivalent to the ones replaced.
But since the money was introduced in July 2022, coins have not been seen in circulation as promised earlier by the government. The few in circulation, perhaps before the redenomination, are on the verge of extinction, due to inefficiency of their purchasing power.
Some Sierra Leoneans who spoke to Concord Times now regard coins, the long standing traditional currency, as illegal tender that is no longer acceptable. And some wonder how coins quickly became worthless.
“I’m surprised to know that coins are no longer accepted in many shops and in the markets here in Waterloo,” Mariama Kargbo, a resident in Waterloo, told Concord Times. “Even when you come to the market with coins, many market women don’t accept them. They always argue that those coins are no longer usable in the country.”
Kargbo believes the lack of coins in the market is one of the key factors contributing to the rising prices of food and other commodities in the market.
Food items like maggie, onion, seasons that are supposed to be sold at 5 cent are now sold at NLe1 due to the lack of availability of coins in the market, she said, saying sometimes they are forced to buy something they don’t even need just because there is no coin to be given back as change.
Her perspective appeared similar to Prince Jacob Macaulay, an Economist, who also spoke to Concord Times in relation to the decline of coins in the market.
“None circulation of coins has a negative effect on the economy,” he said. “The coins are rejected by the people, especially petty traders, because they are not valuable.”
Macaulay blames the disappearance of coins on wrong ‘fiscal and monetary policies’ and government decision to redenominate the currency without putting the required measures in place.
“There was no proper mechanism for the introduction of the new Leones, ” he said, also hitting on the lack of transparency in the redenomination process and government refusal to disclose the amount of the new currency printed and the one that was in existence at the time the redenominated currency was introduced.
The redenomination was done as a response to the shortage of the Leone in commercial banks between June 2020 and July 2021 that compelled the Central Bank to resell its Forex reserves.
The then Bank Governor, Prof. Kelfala M Kallon pegged the shortage on cash hoarding and argued that redenominating the currency would reduce hoarding and reduce the huge transaction cost of daily businesses in the country.
“People are running around with huge sacks of money, there is a great loss in the economy, therefore, we need to redenominate,” he told MPs in a Parliamentary committee meeting in 2021.
All economic analyses allow a country to redenominate under certain circumstances, he argued, stating that the economic crisis Sierra Leone faced in 2020 gave him reasons to redenominate.
Inflation
But the new money came amidst high inflation and rising cost of living in the country, blistered by the global COVID19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine conflict. This sharply affected the money and drained its value against the US dollar, hitting markets the hardest.
And coins which were often used for everyday purchases of small items like a loaf of bread, a sachet of drinking water, maggie, salt, ogrie, butter-scot, gbordoh and mostly used as change for buying other items, became insufficient to purchase anything significant, as traders transition to pricing their goods in higher notes.
For instance, a cup of boiled groundnut which used to be sold at 500 old Leones now became Le 5,000 in the same currency – almost 900 percent increase.
For cheaper items, Mohamed Barrie, a shop owner, said as business people, they have found a way of handling them since there are no longer coins – they round prices up and put more cost on the consumers.
For example, he said, a sweet (candy) is supposed to be sold at 5 cent, but because there are no coins, they are selling candy for Le1, an easy way of avoiding the burden of having to look for coins to give customers change.
“Most of the things we buy now traders request from Le1, Le2, and Le5 and above. We don’t buy with coins anymore,” Yusif Mansaray, a Teacher and a resident at Shell in the East of Freetown, told Concord Times.
“To me, this means our economy is not doing well. One-way-or-the-other, our economy is dropping,” he stated.
Mansaray showed Concord Times some of the coins in his possession at the time of the interview, saying he is having coins that value nearly NLe100, but they are being rejected and he has no way to use them. “I believe so many other people must be encountering the same. This is a big loss to us.”
“Most West African countries are still making use of coins. For Sierra Leone we don’t know what is happening, he added. “We are appealing to the government, please, bring back our coins.”
By Alfred Koroma and Hassan Gbassay Koroma
