Ghanaian cedi

The Ghana cedi (currency sign: GH₵; currency code: GHS) is the unit of currency of Ghana. It is the fourth and only legal tender in the Republic of Ghana. One Ghana cedi is divided into one hundred pesewas (Gp).

After it gained independence Ghana separated itself from the British West African pound, which was the currency of the British colonies in the region. The new republic's first independent currency was the Ghanaian pound (1958-1965). In 1965, Ghana decided to leave the British colonial monetary system and adopt the widely accepted decimal system. The African name Cedi (1965-1967) was introduced in place of the old British pound system. Its first president Kwame Nkrumah introduced Cedi notes and Pesewa coins in July 1965 to replace the Ghana pounds, shillings and pence. The cedi was equivalent to eight shillings and four pence (8s 4d) and bore the portrait of the President

After a military coup the new leaders wanted to remove the face of Nkrumah from the banknotes. The new cedi (1967-2007) was worth 1.2 cedi which made it equal to half of a pound sterling at its introduction. After decades of high inflation had devalued the new cedi, it was gradually phased out in 2007 in favor of the Ghana cedi at an exchange rate of 1:10,000. In 2007 the largest of the new cedi banknotes, the 20,000 note, had a value of about US$2. By removing four digits the Ghana cedi became the highest-denominated currency unit issued in Africa. It has since lost about 75% of its value.

European Documentation and Information Centre

The European Documentation and Information Centre, abbreviated CEDI (French: Centre Européen de Documentation et d'Information), was a former think tank founded in 1952 on the occasion of an international congress held in Santander, Spain. The objective of the organization was to unite various European conservative and Christian Democratic political organizations which formed in several Western European states during postwar reconstruction, the emerging Cold War and the beginnings of what would later be called European integration. During the 1950s and the 1960s, the CEDI was an important contact pool for European politicians. During its early years the CEDI's ideology and program was dominated by its first president, Otto von Habsburg, son of the last emperor of Austria. It was dissolved in 1990 following the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Backgrounds

The Franco regime in Spain made use of the CEDI to get in contact with high-ranking persons of the political, military, economic and cultural life from Western Europe and thus end its post-war international isolation. By preaching the necessity of cultural exchange and the religious unity of the occident, the CEDI aimed at a political, military and economic inclusion of Spain into the beginning process of European Integration.