Ghana Arrests 7 Over ‘Money Bouquets’

Bank of Ghana arrests seven women over alleged misuse of Ghanaian Cedi banknotes in money bouquets and cake decorations.

Ghana’s central bank has arrested seven people — all women — for making and selling bouquets and cakes decorated with Ghana cedi banknotes, in what marks the largest single enforcement action yet against the misuse of the country’s currency.

What happened

The Bank of Ghana said the operation was carried out jointly with the police after a tip-off, and targeted suspects accused of selling currency arrangements across different parts of Accra. The bank says it issued a public notice in July warning that the practice could constitute an offence; the arrests are the first serious consequence of that warning. Investigations are continuing, and the suspects are expected to be prosecuted, with fines or jail terms left to the discretion of the courts.

The legal argument

The Bank of Ghana’s position is that the cedi is legal tender and its physical form is protected by law. In a statement, Dinah Bonzi of the bank’s currency department said the authority warns against “acts that tend to depreciate or impair the national currency, including any conduct that undermines its lawful value or use,” adding that “the misuse or abuse of the currency is an offence and may attract sanctions under the law.” Notably, the bank extended liability beyond the makers: anyone who aids or promotes such activity can also be arrested and prosecuted.

Why it matters commercially

Cash florals and money-topped cakes are a fast-growing gifting category in Ghana, ordered for weddings, birthdays and graduations precisely because they convert a gift into visible, spendable value. That demand made the trade visible and easy to trace — and now legally risky. The July notice gave the market a grace period that most vendors appear not to have treated as binding; the arrests convert a compliance warning into a criminal exposure for florists, cake designers, event planners and social-media promoters alike.

The bigger picture

The central bank has repeatedly flagged related practices: “spraying” or throwing notes at events, writing on or defacing notes, and using currency in decorations. The crackdown mirrors a continental pattern — Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Botswana have all issued warnings against misuse of their national currencies. Ghana’s difference is enforcement: other markets stopped at advisories, while Accra has moved to arrests.

Takeaway

The signal is that currency-adjacent gifting is no longer a grey-area aesthetic choice in Ghana. Anyone building a business on banknotes should stop, and anyone commissioning a money bouquet should expect that the seller — and potentially they themselves — may be acting outside the law.