CBK reveals over seven billion became worthless after deadline lapse
The Central bank of Kenya (CBK) says that over seven million pieces of the old one thousand shillings had not been returned by the September 30th deadline, rendering over seven billion shillings worthless.
CBK Governor, Dr. Patrick Njoroge said that despite pushing out over fifteen thousand adverts and twenty-seven direct interviews urging citizens to return the old notes, 7,386,000 pieces did not return.
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In a statement, Governor Njoroge said that the CBK had received 209,661,000 pieces of the old notes by the end of the September 30th.
“The old notes will now be punched and shredded,” said Njoroge.
He said that the demonetisation operation was meant to deal with illicit financial flows and to weed out counterfeits, maintaining that it had no impact on inflation or shilling exchange rate.
“The value of the money that did not come back is equivalent to the amount that taxpayers lost during the Goldenberg scandal”
Kenyans were required to declare their source of wealth for amounts exceeding one million shillings.
Njoroge said that anti-money laundering sleuths managed to flag over three thousand suspicious transactions during the demonetisation period, assuring Kenyans that anti-corruption institutions with the help of KRA will continue with the relevant investigations.
The governor said that four months after issuance, the new Ksh one thousand notes are going through a rough inflation, but he expects that Kenyans will handle the new currency properly.
