Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge says it's not possible to phase out Sh1,000 notes by July 1st, following a request by a number of MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto.
In Kiambu on Sunday, a host of MPs asked CBK and President Uhuru Kenyatta to reduce the phase out deadline from October to July this year, arguing that the move will vindicate Ruto's camp which is accused of corruption.
“Mr Deputy President, when you go back, tell the President that October is too far. Let him push the deadline to July or two weeks so that we can end some propaganda out there,” said Mohammed Ali as quoted by Standard.
But on Monday in a press conference, Njoroge ruled out the request, arguing that Kenya will not follow the route taken by India. In 2016, India phased out her Sh1,000 Rupee notes.
“We had to benchmark with countries such as India who also withdrew some banknotes from the economy, theirs was an immediate withdrawal which also had its shortfalls,” said Governor Njoroge as quoted by the Standard.
“If we had gone the Indian way, people in remote areas would have been affected the most for lack of enough time to exchange the notes with new ones,” he added.
According to him, the grace period will also allow financial institutions to have enough stock of the new notes which were unveiled on Saturday.
“The grace period will allow banks and other financial institutions to have enough stock of the new generation Sh1,000 notes,” he said.