This archive report was first published on 25 September 2019.
Naivas Supermarkets has taken a cautious approach by setting a deadline for accepting old Sh1,000 notes, a day ahead of the Central Bank of Kenya's deadline of October 1.
According to a notice circulated to all its branches countrywide, the retailer aims to provide sufficient time to offload the stock of old notes in its possession to its banking partners.
Naivas Chief Commercial Officer, Willy Kimani, noted that the retailer is a strong supporter of the government's move to introduce new currency notes and coins.
Kimani attributed the high conversion rate of new Sh1,000 notes to 92%, with a marked rise in card and mobile transactions, accounting for 37% of all payments.
He added that the use of cash for paying bills had fallen by nearly one third over the last six months, with the firm promoting cashless transactions through its wide variety of partners and a new state-of-the-art processing system.
Naivas has also installed cash tills and money counters that can read the new notes and detect fake ones, supporting the trend towards mobile money and card payments, especially in Nairobi.
Several entities, including Safaricom and Pizza Inn, have also set earlier deadlines for accepting the old currency notes, while Public Service Vehicles (PSV) operators have stopped taking the old notes.
