An Allegorical series of blogs that covers a range of topics from international currencies to rural development in an engaging free flowing manner.

1. GSR Blog Special Series #1: A Tale of Two
Cedis Part Two
This is the continuing saga of two adventurous cedi (the cedi is the currency of Ghana) notes
who go out into the world to make their fortune. They almost decide to hitch a ride to China,
but change their mind when they hear of other cedis that went to China but never came back.
The two cedis decided that it would
not be worthwhile to travel to China to
seek their fortune. But what about
Washington or New York? How about
investing themselves in an NGO
development project? There were
many such projects, and they all
promised the people in Lili’s village a
better life. For instance, a large
hydroelectric project had just been
completed. Foreign dignitaries showed
up for the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The Minister of Economic
Development gave a nice speech
The Two Cedis explaining the importance of the
project. Now five megawatts of power
were available for local development. Proceeds from the sale of electricity would fund
school and clinic programs. Unfortunately, no one in Lili’s village had enough money to
afford to pay for the electricity. There were no local businesses set up to take advantage of
the electricity. Therefore there was no stimulus for local economic growth from this
development project, and thus no benefit for the local community.
There were many such projects, and the two cedis were trying to figure out which project
would solve Lili’s problem. They were a bit sad when they finally reached the conclusion
that there was so little impact from all these well intentioned efforts. The two cedis began
to consider what were the actual problems preventing Lili and her family from emerging
from poverty Why didn’t Lili make a big, well stocked market with a wide variety of

2. products? It was not because Lili and her husband were lazy – they worked hard! And they
were also very motivated to improve their condition. The cedis realized that there were
some obstacles preventing this:
Capital constraints – Lili didn’t have capital to build a big shop
Distance constraints
- no means to transport tons
of products to stock such a
shop
Infrastructure
constraints – A larger shop
requires cold storage to keep
unsold produce from going
rotten. Not only could Lili
not afford to build a cold
storage facility, but there was
not even be electricity to run
such a cold room
Lili's Store
Competition from
other stalls selling the same items
Time constraints – She is walking 4 hours each day to and from home to sell her goods.
She has no time to grow more food than she currently produces.
No banking facilities She has no bank account to hold and manage her cash flow
The cedis sat glumly in Lili’s pocket. It was a dark forbidding world out there! An innocent cedi
could easily become worthless!
Will the cedis finally find their place in the warm Ghana sun? Stay tuned for the next exciting
chapter.