One-Cedi Note to Honour Agnes Oforiwaa Tagoe-Quarcoopome, the Market Queen Who Banked First and Funded Nkrumah’s Revolution

The Bank of Ghana’s new GH¢1 Heritage Series note will bear the portrait of Agnes Oforiwaa Tagoe-Quarcoopome, the legendary Makola market queen who became the first Ghanaian market woman to open a bank account and used her commercial empire to finance Kwame Nkrumah’s independence campaign. The note enters circulation on December 1, 2026, alongside the existing series, which remains legal tender.

The announcement came at Thursday’s launch of the Heritage Series at Bank Square in Accra, where Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama unveiled banknotes designed to celebrate Ghana’s national heroes, historic sites, monuments and Adinkra symbols. The GH¢1 denomination’s choice of Tagoe-Quarcoopome places a market woman—long absent from the nation’s currency imagery—at the heart of Ghana’s monetary identity .

From Makola to the Bank Vault: A Pioneer of Financial Inclusion

Born on May 27, 1913, to George Aryeequayefio Tagoe and Madam Okaikai Aryee, Agnes Oforiwaa—affectionately known as Auntie Oforiwa—was forced to end her formal education at Accra Royal School in James Town in 1929 due to financial hardship. She turned to trade, entering the buying and selling business between 1921 and 1929 and eventually owning shops in Makola and Okaishie, the bustling commercial heart of Accra .

By the 1940s, she had become one of Ghana’s most respected market women. But her most transformative act was yet to come. In an era when wealthy Makola traders customarily hoarded their earnings in home safes, Tagoe-Quarcoopome—on the advice of an expatriate sales manager at the United Africa Company (UAC)—walked into the Standard Bank of West Africa (now Standard Chartered Bank) and opened an account. She became the first Makola woman to do so .

The effect was seismic. Her single act of trust in formal banking shattered a barrier, and other market women and businessmen, seeing her example, followed suit. The bank gained a new clientele; the market women gained a measure of financial security and legitimacy .

The Market Queen Who Financed a Revolution

Tagoe-Quarcoopome’s significance extended far beyond commerce. She was a staunch member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and one of Kwame Nkrumah’s earliest and most consequential supporters. Their friendship began when Nkrumah, newly arrived from the United Kingdom to serve as General Secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), lodged briefly with her .

When Nkrumah broke away to form the CPP in 1949, Tagoe-Quarcoopome single-handedly mobilised the market women of Makola behind him. She organised meetings at the markets where Nkrumah could speak directly to the traders, explained his vision for an independent Ghana, and—crucially—persuaded the market women to finance his campaign. Through her Makola Women Association, she generated substantial funds for the independence struggle .

Her influence was not confined to Accra’s markets. She became a vital member of trade union groups and was described as a principal reason for the robust trade between Britain and Ghana in that era. In 1958, the UAC awarded her a travelling scholarship—making her the first Ghanaian trader to visit the company’s corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. She returned with a wide range of attractive textile designs and imported goods in huge quantities, further expanding her business .

A Life of Consequence—and Retribution

Tagoe-Quarcoopome’s loyalty to Nkrumah came at a personal cost. In 1964, she built a luxury, fully air-conditioned house in Kokomlemle, which the Nkrumah government rented as the official residence of Russian officials. After the February 1966 coup that overthrew Nkrumah, she was taken into custody on the orders of Lieutenant Arthur. More than 50 armed soldiers forced her from her home in the middle of the night in front of her family—a humiliation visited upon no other Makola woman .

She was released in 1967 after Lieutenant Arthur was executed for a separate attempted coup, freed by Lieutenant General Joseph Arthur Ankrah. She returned to her business and, by the 1970s, had become exceedingly wealthy, purchasing properties in London’s Holland Park before the property boom of the mid-1970s multiplied their value several times over .

She died on July 7, 1997, at the age of 84 .

A Currency That Tells the Nation’s Story

Governor Asiama said the Heritage Series—produced under the theme “The Cedi, Our Future: Secure, Designed to Last”—incorporates enhanced security features, improved durability and more portable sizes. The notes will circulate alongside the existing series from December 1, 2026, with the old banknotes remaining legal tender. A new Currency Act is also in the works to replace the 1964 legislation, strengthening penalties for counterfeiting and providing clearer procedures for handling mutilated and counterfeit notes .

President John Dramani Mahama, who attended the launch, described the cedi as “a quiet ambassador for our nation” and said the figures and symbols on the notes would prompt questions and deepen understanding of Ghana’s history among younger generations .

For Tagoe-Quarcoopome, the honour is belated but resonant. A woman who left school for lack of funds, who built a trading empire from Makola’s stalls, who walked into a colonial bank and demanded an account, and who then used her fortune and influence to help birth a nation—her portrait on the GH¢1 note places her where she always belonged: at the centre of Ghana’s story.

The Bank of Ghana has urged the public not to rush to exchange existing notes, advising that both series will circulate together and that banks will gradually withdraw the old notes. A nationwide public education campaign in major local languages, supported by a new Cedi App designed to assist visually impaired users, will help Ghanaians identify genuine banknotes and handle the currency responsibly .