The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has announced four changes to Kenyan currency notes – the KSh 1,000, KSh 500, KSh 200, KSh 100, and KSh 50.
- In a statement by CBK, the new bank notes will bear CBK Governor Dr. Kamau Thugge’s signature, Principal Secretary, National Treasury, Dr. Chris Kiptoo’s signature, the year of print 2024 and new security threads with colour changing effects that are specific to each denomination.
- The new notes, the CBK Governor said in a press briefing, were initiated because of looming stock out projected for July and maintaining that there was urgent need for new notes.
“This is just a normal process of the Central Bank of Kenya. The notes that we have are getting old and, therefore, we need to get new notes. The reason we started with the KSh1,000 notes was that there could be a stock out of those notes…in around July, August,” CBK Governor, Dr Kamau Thugge said in a press briefing earlier today.
In the press briefing, Dr. Kamau Thugge provided insights regarding the move and the rationale behind it. This comes after concerns by Kenyans and analysts on which company is printing the new notes and why the sudden move.
Dr. Kamau Thugge said, “The printing is being done by a German firm and it is actually one of the best firms,” but he did not name the company. He further highlighted the expertise of the company and assured of high quality and security of the new notes.
Banknote printer De La Rue suspended printing in January 2023, citing low demand after CBK informed them of no more printing orders in the subsequent 12 months.
“The rest of the features remain the same as those of the series issued in 2019. All banknotes currently in circulation remain legal tender and will circulate alongside the released banknotes.” CBK said in the statement.
The release of the banknotes is expected to start with KSh 1,000, with other denominations progressively following in the coming months.
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