The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) turned to an undisclosed German for printing new notes to replace old ones and also avert possible stockouts.
Questions are being raised on the motivation to single-source the printer.
This is because there was no public participation in the exercise.
CBK said in a Wednesday morning statement, the changes will affect Sh50, Sh100, Sh200, Sh500, and Sh1,000 notes.
The notes will bear the signature of the new governor Kamau Thugge who took over in mid-June last year.
They will also be signed by Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo as a board member of CBK.
Dr Thugge said the notes had been printed by a German firm but declined to name the company.
The switch to a German firm comes after the British printer’s local subsidiary, De la Rue Kenya, in which Kenya had a stake, closed shop last year.
“This is just the normal process of the CBK. The notes we have are getting old and therefore we need to get new notes. The reason why we started with Sh1,000 notes is that we are projecting there could be a stockout of those notes in August and so it was really necessary that we get new notes as quickly as possible,” said Dr Thugge.
“The printing was being done by a German firm and it is actually one of the best firms.”
Dr Thugge did not disclose the name of the German firm or the cost of printing the new notes.
De La Rue has been printing notes for Kenya through the local joint venture that is 40 percent owned by the Kenyan government, but after CBK told it no more orders would be coming for at least 12 months.
The development comes barely two years after De La Rue Kenya EPZ Limited, a notes printing firm in which Kenya purchased a 40 percent stake for €5 million (Sh820.5 million) in 2019, shut its plant in Nairobi and wound down operations.
Germany has two prominent currency printers – Bundesdruckerei GmbH and Giesecke + Devrient GmbH- and it was not clear if either of the firms is the one that won the tender competitively.
The new notes will have the year of print as 2024 and will also bear new security threads with colour-changing effects that are specific to each denomination.
CBK said 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. Release of the banknotes will commence with Sh1,000, while other denominations will progressively follow in the coming months,” said CBK.
The new signatures follow the exit of Patrick Njoroge who retired from the CBK governor role in mid-June last year.
As of the end of December 2023, CBK data showed the value of notes in the country was Sh340.59 billion, with Sh290.97 billion being from Sh1,000 notes.
The Sh500-denominated notes were worth a total of Sh16.11 billion, while the Sh200 ones had a value
The CBK breakdown means there were about 290.9 million notes of Sh1,000, 32.22 million notes of Sh500, and 57.9 million notes of Sh200.
The number of Sh100 and Sh50 notes was about 120.9 million and 155.6 million, respectively.
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