This archive report was first published on 22 September 2019.
Published on September 22, 2019, Safaricom has announced that its M-Pesa shops will stop accepting old currency notes from next Thursday, four days before the Central Bank of Kenya's September 30 deadline.
According to a communication to its regional outlets, Safaricom will not take old notes after September 26 to allow for timely banking.
After September 30, all older generation notes will be worthless, leaving many Kenyans with a limited time frame to exchange their old notes for new ones.
As of two weeks ago, the Central Bank of Kenya reported that there are enough new generation notes in circulation, urging Kenyans to take advantage of the deadline to replace old notes.
Approximately 100 million pieces of the old Sh1,000 note had been returned to the CBK by the end of August, translating to about 50 per cent of old Sh1,000 in circulation.
CBK governor Patrick Njoroge had asked Kenyans to remind their mothers and grandmothers on the old notes deadline, tweeting, “Our mothers and grandmothers are epic savers. They may have some money around their homes. Please check on them and remind them of the deadline of September 30 for exchanging the older Sh 1000 notes.”
The old Sh1,000 banknotes being withdrawn will be shredded and burned into ashes in Nairobi’s Kariobangi area, with the process involving the transportation of collected notes to the headquarters, verification, and storage in a deoxygenated room under strict supervision.
