Kenyan banks to update ATMs for new currency

Kenyans Banks have embarked on a tedious process to reconfigure their automated teller machines (ATMs), acquire new cash counting machines as well as upgrade their software to accommodate the new currencies introduced to the market last Saturday.

The new currencies are smaller and have different features, prompting the need for ATM upgrades and new money counting machines found in teller booths to verify cash amounts and capture counterfeits.

The Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) Tuesday said the banks were working with the industry regulator, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to ensure the adjustments are done quickly for a smooth transition.

The older versions of smaller denominations will remain in circulation alongside the new ones launched on Madaraka Day, but after October 1, the older Sh1,000 notes will become invalid.

“There is the retuning of the cassettes where notes are held in the ATMs and then there is the software upgrades, especially for more sophisticated machines like the ones that take deposits,” KBA chairman Habil Olaka said yesterday with Kenya’s Business Daily.

The much-awaited launch of the new bank notes and coins by The Central Bank of Kenya finally came to fore Saturday bringing to an end the use of portraits of Kenyan individuals for native wildlife images and Kenyan heritage.

The new coin designs, which were introduced to the one, five, ten, and twenty shillings, paid tribute to Kenya’s environment and the nation’s rich abundance of wildlife.

Kenya made true a pledge to change the images on its currency when it promulgated its new constitution in 2010 – with the new bank notes and coins presented to President Kenyatta by the CBK boss Patrick Njoroge in Narok County during this year’s Madaraka Day Fete.

The 1000-note would be speedily withdrawn from circulation as an effort to eradicate fake circulation of such notes in the public and financial markets, essentially ceasing to be legal tender by October this year. Such old notes having been occasionally used in the vice.

The move will now see those holding millions of ill-gotten money not in circulation and not held by the banks or financial institutions, have difficulty in trading, exchanging or replacing such notes through the banks for fear of being held accountable to money-laundering.

The rollout of the new-look currency would commence immediately after a gazette notice on Friday 31st May 2019, a day before the formal launch on Madaraka Day. The new generation notes had been undertaken by British banknote-manufacturer De La Rue.

Paying homage to major wildlife species is pragmatic given how much it promotes tourism, a key foreign exchange earner in Kenya.

The move is a vital one and is seen as an attempt to highlight Kenya’s diversity instead of celebrating specific leaders. When Kenya adopted its current constitution in 2010, the law dramatically decentralized power relations, promised for greater accountability and fairer distribution of resources. The law also dictated that coins and banknotes “bear images that depict or symbolize Kenya or an aspect of Kenya but shall not bear the portrait of any individual.”

Currency notes usually featured the faces of the country’s first and second presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi respectively, while a limited 40-shilling coin featured the third president Mwai Kibaki.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Dr Patrick Njoroge for a second and final four-year term as Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) governor.

The reappointment effective June 18, 2019 was announced by President Kenyatta through a special gazette notice dated May 24, 2019 issued this morning.

“In exercise of the powers conferred to me by section 13 (2) of the Central Bank of Kenya Act, I Uhuru Kenyatta President and Commander of the Republic of Kenya Defence Forces re-appoint Patrick Ngugi Njoroge to be the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya for a period of four years with effect from the 11th June 2019,” said President Kenyatta.

Dr Njoroge, 58, will now serve until June 2023.

Dr Njoroge was appointed governor on June 26, 2015 and his four-year renewable term was set to end on June 19 this year.