M-Pesa Shops Will Not Accept Old 1,000 Banknotes From Thursday

Kenyans have up to Thursday 26^th September to deposit their old-version of 1000 shilling banknotes to M-Pesa in Safaricom shops as September 30, 2019, deadline looms.

Safaricom PLC, in a memo sent across the Country, informed all Safaricom customers that they would allow deposits of the old 1,000 shilling notes all the way up to 26^th September 2019 to allow them at least four days to bank the money.

Safaricom has been calling upon Kenyans to deposit their 1000 shillings note to M-pesa to avoid the last minute rush as the old thousand currencies get a new face.

“Safaricom will not take old notes after September 26, to allow us bank in time,” the statement read.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge, during the launch of the new a thousand shillings note, said that the old version notes would be valueless come 1^st October 2019.

Mr. Njoroge said that the Country had enough new thousand shilling notes in circulation to enable Kenyans exchange before the deadline.

Njoroge also noted that over 100 million pieces of the old 1000 shilling notes had been returned to the CBK by the end of August.

In a tweet, CBK urged Kenyans to remind their aged parents and grandmothers who saved money in various corners of their homes to have it exchanged to the new currency before the 30^th September deadline.

“Our mothers and grandmothers are epic savers. They may have some money around their homes,” CBK tweeted.

“Please check on them and remind them of the deadline of September 30 for exchanging the older 1000 shilling notes,” CBK added.

Over 100 billion shillings of the old a thousand shilling banknotes remain unaccounted for as it has not been exchanged yet.