After the demonetization of the old 1,000 shillings notes, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) now remains with the task of getting rid of the worthless papers.
At least 209 million pieces of the old 1000 shillings note were exchanged during the period set by CBK, leaving about 7.8 million pieces unchanged by September 30th.
CBK had targeted to receive about 217 million pieces of the old series notes, but it said it received 87 percent of the target, which was commendable.
Kenyans on social media were posing questions on how the notes will be disposed of by CBK, with some arguing that the pieces were too many, and could be piled up to form a hill-like heap.
According to the CBK governor Patrick Njoroge, the collected old 1000 notes would probably fit in five 40-feet containers and will be trashed as soon as possible.
“When we receive banknotes, we punch them and shred them, then compact them into a briquette. Each briquette the Governor is holding is equivalent to 1,000,000 shillings in shredded banknotes,” said Mr. Njoroge yesterday in a Twitter blog post.
Mr. Njoroge did not make it clear on how the briquettes would be disposed of, but by checking on what other countries have been doing it, the shreds might be burned.
CBK announced that 149,692,000 pieces of the new 1,000 notes were in circulation as of September 30.
The other denominations are still in circulation, but a specific deadline has not been set by CBK on the demonetization of the old series notes and coins.
“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,” CBK said.
Here is the summary of what happened during the period of demonetization according to CBK:
- There was no impact on inflation
- There was no queue of buyers of high-value assets to launder money
- AML/ CFT measures were applied on the forex market, thus no impact on the exchange rate
- There were few queues at banks
- There were 217,047,000 pieces of 1,000 shillings as at June 1 – 209,661,000 pieces of 1,000 shillings were received by the end of September 30.
- 7,386,000 pieces of 1,000 shillings did not return.
- 149,692,000 pieces of the new 1,000 notes were in circulation as of September 30.
Read Also: Uncollected 7,386,000 Million Pieces Of Old Ksh 1,000 Notes Now Worthless