CBK expresses concern over ‘ageing’ of new banknotes

The new generation banknotes were introduced almost four months ago and lit up the internet with their sleek design and fancy colours.

A few months down the line, Kenyans have raised concern over their quality and durability since apparently they are ‘ageing’ quickly.

Despite the fact that they are still ‘new in the market’ most of them look worn out and the Central Bank of Kenya on Wednesday asked members of the public to handle them carefully.

Through a rather humorous post, CBK noted that the notes are going through a ‘rough initiation’ and asked Kenyans to handle the notes with more care.

“In the first few months, our new banknotes are going through a rather rough ‘initiation’.

“But we hope that Kenyans will handle the currency properly,” said CBK in a tweet.

It also announced the successful completion of the demonetization of the older series Sh1000 notes.

The exercise was aimed at addressing the concern of illicit financial flows and the emerging risk of counterfeits.

According to the CBK, during the period, Kenyans exchanged their banknotes in smaller amounts.

62% of transactions were under Sh500,000

79% of transactions were under Sh1,000,000

92% of transactions were under Sh 2,000,000

7,386,000 pieces of older Sh1000 notes were rendered worthless at the end of the exercise.