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CBK Raises Alarm over the buying of wheat with “dirty money”

Enterprise Team

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In the quest of scrapping out the old Sh.1000 note by 30th September, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has raised alarm over people with dirty money buying wheat in Narok County in order to clean up as it’s deadline approaches.

The CBK maintained that there will be no extension of the deadline whatsoever.

No one is exempted from this exchange. The CBK Governor, Patrick Njoroge said that they are working hand in hand with the judiciary so as to ensure that prisoners who deposited old notes are also allowed to exchange. This will include the millions in form of old notes that are being used as exhibits by various courts in the country.

He also added that judiciary officials who will not have exchanged their notes will be rendered worthless  after next week.

This will not affect the Sh.50, Sh.100,Sh.200 and Sh.500 for they will be phased out with time.

According to Dr. Njoroge, the phase out of Sh.1000 note will aid in dealing with cases of counterfeits and money laundering, which has had a negative impact on Kenya’s economy.

The phase-out is expected to be a success just like in similar places that did the same and it had a positive impact on the economy for example Pakistan in 2016, Australia in 1996, UK 2002 and Zibambwe attempted in 2015 and succeeded having considered using the US dollar.

However, this money exchange might on the other hand have a negative impact as it has on several countries. In 2016, India scrapped 500 and 1000-rupee bank notes to flush out tax evaders.

Although, this did not get the desired effects as 99 percent of the money still got back into the system.

Nigeria also introduced new currency and banned the old notes in 1984, under the Muhammadu Buhari government. This action became chaotic and was blamed for the inflation that followed and crashed the economy.

In 1982, Ghana also fell prey to this move when it ditched its 50 cedis note to deal with rampant tax evasion and empty excess liquidity. It had the downside of fueling a currency black market.

North Korea attempted this in 2010 but ended up not meeting the citizen’s basic needs such a food and shelter after Kim-Jong ll knocked off two zeros from the face value of the old currency in order to kick out the black market.

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