CBK Admits to Low Circulation of New Ksh 1000 Notes

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has finally made a concession about the low and slow circulation of the new currency and especially the 1000 shillings notes.

Through a radio interview, the CBK governor, Patrick Njoroge has bowed down to the claims but assuring Kenyans that there is no cause for an alarm as the circulation will be sufficient from this week.

“When we started off, the first batch of notes were there to give Kenyans a taste of the new currency. However, you should from this week, expect bank ATMs to churn out new Ksh.1,000 notes,” CBK governor said.

“We have a sound plan to ensure that new currency notes hit all parts of the country. We have two months to go and are convinced that the window is adequate to facilitate the entire demonetization process,” the governor added.

Earlier, Kenyan banks had reconfigured their teller machines to channel out the old series of the notes due to low circulation.

The bankers had started to blame the CBK for going silent on the issue while the media and the members of the public were on their necks.

“The CBK has thrown the monkey at our door! Central Bank has remained silent even when as the ball of printing new money and its distribution lies on their court,” one banker complained.

The Indian government had also employed similar measures to get rid of black and fake money but failed catastrophically.

Reserve Bank of India (BRI) released a report last year that revealed that only 0.7 percent of the notes (500 and 1000) left the system as the majority 99 percent was sieved through the State checks to re-emerge back into the system as a clean float.

Most banking experts had started getting worried due to the issue as the old series of the 1000 shillings notes are supposed to be done away with by October 1, 2019.

The demonetization process is expected to get rid of about 217.6 million units of 1000 shillings notes and counter the illegal money laundering activities in the country.

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