Kenyans did not return Sh7.38 billion that has now become worthless, CBK governor Patrick Njoroge has said.
Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, Njoroge said that out of 217 million Sh1,000 notes, 209.6 million were returned by the end of the demonetisation process.
"By September 30, 209,661,000 pieces had been exchanged and therefore 7,386,000 million pieces are still held by individuals as worthless money," Njoroge said.
He added; "The hypothesis that Kenyans are procrastinators and wait until the last minute was disproved. Kenyans will act properly when they know what is good for them."
Njoroge said that demonetisation has been successful because the CBK has completed it smoothly, with Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism filters firmly in place.
He added that this kept out money whose owners did not want to be subjected to the relevant checks in the system.
The CBK governor also explained the process through which the old notes will be destroyed.
He said that if you put all the 217 million pieces of the Sh1,000 notes, they would fit in only five 40-ft containers.
"When we receive banknotes, we punch them and shred them, then compact them into a briquette. Each briquette the Governor is holding is equivalent to Ksh 1,000,000 in shredded banknotes," Njoroge said.
During the exercise, the CBK governor said, that Banks, forex bureaus, microfinance institutions, money transfer and mobile money agents were all following the AML/CFT guidelines.
As a result, a total of 3,172 suspicious transactions were flagged during the demonetisation period.
"The volume of total transactions just in August alone was 161,082,470, to give a sense of scale," Njoroge explained.
He added that during the demonetisation exercise, 96 per cent of transactions were under Sh500,000 and 99 per cent of transactions were under Sh1 million.
