Today, Gambia is finally going to release new banknotes without the portrait of the country’s ex-President, Yahya Jammeh. The first set was recently presented by top Central Bank officials to the current president, Adama Barrow. Jammeh’s image has been replaced by one of the national birds of Gambia. Apart from that, the security features have also been improved to a great extent. The new series includes banknotes of denominations, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 dalasi.

It was officially announced in 2018 that the Central Bank would be gradually replacing all old banknotes featuring a portrait of Jammeh. These were released in 2015, but Jammeh lost elections in 2016 and is supposedly in exile in Equatorial Guinea from January 2017. Between the years 2014 and 2015, notes without the portrait were printed. The earlier plan was to replace the old notes with these notes. As this process went on, the Central Bank got time to redesign the notes completely. Current banknotes of South Africa, Ghana etc were considered for setting the new benchmark.

Gambia’s first president Dawda Jawara was opposed by Jammeh for introducing banknotes depicting Dawda Jawara’s face in 1971, but Jammeh did the same in 2015 when he was elected as the president. According to media reports, government funds were looted by Jammeh. He also took several decisions without considering other viewpoints or opinions which led to major mismanagement of resources.

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