2017-11-25 Sat

Kenya will be releasing new currency by June 2018. The Central Bank is in talks with international companies to produce notes and coins for them. The British firm De La Rue filed court papers to stop the process and an international tender was released by the Central Bank on 24th October. The bids are open and a winner will be selected on Wednesday.

CBK locked out De la Rue of the tender after it prequalified international firms. Kenyan currency has been produced by De La Rue for the last 25 years. The firm believes that it would be safer to print notes locally in Ruaraka, Nairobi.

CBK states that local firms are not capable of printing new currency notes according to the required specifications. The currency production process is complex which is why materials are imported. CBK also did not take help of De La Rue to destroy old banknotes since the process will not need any printer. The Central Bank believes that security won’t be a problem as there are many other countries which successfully outsource the banknote printing process.