New Rwf500 and 1000 notes in circulation next week

The Central Bank announced that new Rwf500 and Rwf1ooo notes were already printed to start being used on the market early next week.

According to the Central Bank’s Governor John Rwangombwa, the reason to change these notes is that the two  almost looked similar and old.

“We had several bidders and finally selected one who printed both notes,” Rwangombwa said.

He revealed that GE – a Germany company won a tender to print the notes at a Rwf5 billion cost or 1.6 billion each year in a span of 3 years.

Both current and new notes will continue to circulate together until the end of 3 years when Central Bank will be done with the cost of the new notes. This time, they will issue a monetization notice.

“We will start distributing these new notes in banks next week so that people can start to use them,” Rwangombwa told journalists.

The new banknotes are expected to be in circulation on Monday next week.
At a press conference on Thursday to announce decisions taken following the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting, Rwangombwa announced that the Bank’s lending rate remained the same(5.5) as in the previous quarter.

Rwangombwa told journalists that the decision to keep the repo rate was hugely attributed to positive economic performance especially the booming money market. 

“We had several bidders and finally selected one who printed both notes,” Rwangombwa said.

The reason for change, Rwangombwa said, “the two notes almost looked similar. They were also old and we wanted to get them off the market,” Rwangombwa said.

He revealed that GE – a Germany company won a tender to print the notes at a Rwf5 billion cost or 1.6 billion each year in a span of 3 years.

Both current and new notes will continue to circulate together until the end of 3 years when Central Bank will be done with the cost of the new notes. This time, they will issue a monetization notice.

“We will start distributing these new notes in banks next week so that people can start to use them,” Rwangombwa told journalists.

At a press conference on Thursday to announce decisions taken following the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting, Rwangombwa announced that the Bank’s lending rate remained the same (5.5%) as in the previous quarter.

Rwangombwa told journalists that the decision to keep the repo rate was hugely attributed to positive economic performance especially the booming money market.

Source: Ktpress