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| The campaign, which has been dubbed Coin Week is aimed at ensuring that various coins are available |
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OTHER FINANCIAL NEWS |
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NAIROBI -- The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has launched a two-week campaign to encourage Kenyans to release the coins in their possession in exchange for notes in a bid to enhance the circulation of coins.
The campaign, which has been dubbed Coin Week, will begin on June 20 and end on July 1.
CBK's director of currency operations and branch administration department, James Teko Lokoyetum, noted that it will ensure that the various coins still acting as legal tender are available.
Addressing journalists, Lokoyetum stated that coins are necessary to facilitate change to ensure both the buyer and seller engage in a complete transaction.
"The actual and effective circulation of coins in the economy is the responsibility of everyone involved in any business undertaking from supermarkets and other retail outlets to the buyers."
If successful, the campaign could help avoid the current familiar situations whereby customers at various supermarkets are never given back their change in the monetary value but instead asked to pick items of similar value.
The CBK distributes coins countrywide through major urban centres. Its statistics indicate that as of April 30 this year, 1.2 billion pieces of coins worth about 54.4 million U.S. dollars were distributed.
"Of these coins, more than half the pieces are being withheld or hoarded by the public while others are carried away by tourists who come into the country as souvenirs. This means that the CBK releases the coins but these never flow back to it," Lokoyetum lamented.
After the release of the coins into circulation through commercial banks which then disburse the same to corporate, retail or individual customers, the coins are ideally meant to follow the same flow pattern and end up at the CBK.
The value and volume of coins circulating in Kenya's economy has been rising over the years, from about 300 million pieces in 1999 comprising all the available denominations, including 50 cents, 1 shilling, 5 shillings, 10 shillings, 20 shillings and 40 shillings to 1.9 billion pieces in 2011.
The disruption in the flow of coins in the country is also due to the fact that some local retail outlets do not accept some denominations of coins, examples being 10 and 50 cents coins while a number of commercial banks have gone further to charge clients who deposit coins.
Due to these challenges in ensuring free circulation of the coins in the country experienced, the CBK has also partnered with the Kenya Bankers Association in order to ensure that the 40 odd banks in the country desist from charging clients for coin deposits but take the denominations then exchange the same with notes of the same value.
After the two-week campaign, noted Lokoyetum, the CBK will call stakeholders for a meeting on July 26 to evaluate the success of the exercise.
The inaugural campaign is being held just a few months before the CBK demonetizes various coin and note denominations in the country including 10 cents, 5 cents, 25 cents and 5 note shillings.
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