Central Bank starts two-week campaign on coins in circulation

Nairobi, Thursday

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has launched a two-week campaign to encourage Kenyans to release the coins they have in their possession, in exchange for notes in a bid to enhance 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 coins still acting as legal tender are available.

Addressing journalists, Mr Lokoyetum said 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 where customers at various supermarkets are never given back their change in monetary value, but asked to pick items of similar value.

The CBK distributes coins country wide 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 US 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 CBK releases coins but they never flow back to it,” Mr Lokoyetum said.

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 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. (Xinhua)