The East African Community has not unveiled new banknotes and those circulating on social media are fake. The East African Community, on their official X handle, has termed the images and information spreading online as fake and misleading.
“The EAC Secretariat wishes to inform all our stakeholders that the Partner States’ journey to a single currency is still a work in progress. Kindly ignore any rumors circulating in social media on the unveiling of new banknotes for the region,” said the community.
On Sunday, an X account called Government of East Africa, which is verified grey making it look official and related to government matters, posted images of the alleged new currency and even broke it down in value to other currencies in the region.
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Here is the statement from the East African Community:
The EAC Secretariat wishes to inform all our stakeholders that the Partner States’ journey to a single currency is still a work in progress. Kindly ignore any rumors circulating in social media about the unveiling of new banknotes for the region. pic.twitter.com/kunhBtzpuK
— East African Community (@jumuiya) March 3, 2024
Interestingly, almost all mainstream media fell victim to this fake account, ran with the stories as the truth, flushing headlines, and even started writing opinion pieces on what the new currency means for the economy of the East African region.
However, discussions are still ongoing among member states to have a common currency for the region in years to come in an effort to open up the region to trade freely among themselves without the restriction of exchange rates.
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