On 5 October 2026 the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Police Service arrested seven people in Accra for making money bouquets and money cakes from cedi notes. The arrests happened at different locations across the city. The BBC and GBC Ghana Online report they were all women. They ran businesses making these for weddings, birthdays and graduations.
The arrests followed a notice. On 14 July 2026 the Bank of Ghana published Notice No. BG/GOV/SEC/2026/17, signed by the Secretary of the Bank. It says spraying cedi notes at events and using them as decoration are offences under the Currency Act, 1964 (Act 242). These practices have been part of Ghanaian celebrations for years. In October the police arrested people under the notice.
What your family should not do with cedi notes
Warn your family before the event, because the first three items on this list happen at weddings, outdoorings and birthdays all the time. The Bank of Ghana's notice says no one may:
- spray or shower cedi notes at an event, which people also call "throwing" money
- use notes as decoration, such as artistic creations, money bouquets, jewellery or fingernail designs
- scatter notes on the ground, dance on them or step on them
- tear, crumple, stain, soil, deface, melt or mutilate notes or coins
- write on notes, or cut or alter notes or coins
- use pictures of banknotes or coins without the Bank of Ghana's permission
- buy or sell a coin for more than its face value
- use notes or coins in any other unusual way that affects the quality or image of the currency
The notice does not name money cakes. The Bank of Ghana named them on 5 October, when it spoke about the arrests.
The seven arrests were for making bouquets and cakes to sell, so the people arrested were the makers. The notice is wider than that. By its wording, a guest who sprays notes, pins a note on the celebrant or sticks notes to a cake is also breaking the rule.
Catch
The Bank of Ghana's notice says offenders can be arrested, prosecuted, fined or jailed. It does not state a specific fine or a specific prison term for this offence. The Currency Act, 1964 is the statute it leans on; the published notice does not quote the exact section or the exact penalty.
The rule has been challenged, but your family should still be careful
On 6 October 2026, Dr Hassan Ayariga, founder of the All People's Congress, publicly challenged the Bank of Ghana to cite the specific provision of the law being broken when the notes are not torn, defaced or damaged. He argues that a gift of undamaged money, in a bouquet or anywhere else, is not defacement.
Only a court can settle that argument, and a court can side with the central bank. In Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria treated spraying as abuse of the naira, and the courts backed it. For now, the police in Ghana are acting on the Bank of Ghana's reading, so your family should treat that reading as the rule.
What you and your family should do before the next event
The notice does not cover sending or receiving a transfer. The money you send is legal to send and legal to receive. If it arrives in an MTN Mobile Money wallet, an AT Money wallet or a bank account, it is a balance and not paper notes. The rule only matters if someone takes it out as cash and uses the notes in one of the ways above. The Ghana guide has the current picture on which app pays in cheapest.
What you do with notes is different. On 5 October the Bank of Ghana warned that "persons found engaging in, aiding, promoting or facilitating such acts will be arrested and prosecuted". Aiding and facilitating mean helping someone do it. This is our reading of that warning: if you order or pay for a money bouquet, or spray notes on a trip home, you are inside the rule as the Bank of Ghana reads it.
The same warning covers your family in Ghana: the relative arranging the event, and the aunty with the florist shop who makes bouquets to order. If someone in your family does either, send them a short warning before the event.
Tip
You can send this to the family WhatsApp group: "The money is fine, but please no money bouquets, no cedis on a cake and no spraying. The police arrested seven people in Accra in October over bouquets and cakes, and the Bank of Ghana says spraying is an offence too."
Your family can still make the money feel like a gift. They can hand the bride and groom a sealed envelope of crisp notes, or you can send a mobile-money top-up with a message. The notice names neither of these.
Corrections
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the sender in the UK is not the one at risk. We had no source for that, and the page now reports the Bank of Ghana's 5 October warning that people "aiding, promoting or facilitating" these acts will be arrested and prosecuted.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the Bank of Ghana's July notice names money cakes. It does not. The Bank named cakes on 5 October, and the page now says so.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said most UK-to-Ghana transfers already arrive in a mobile money wallet or a bank account. We have no primary source for that share, so the sentence has been removed.