Hasibullah Noori, spokesperson for the Central Bank of Afghanistan, has announced the collection of nearly eight billion afghani in worn-out currency by the bank over the past year.
The spokesperson highlighted the continuation of the process to collect worn-out banknotes and once again urged the citizens of the country to focus on preserving banknotes in their transactions.
According to Hasibullah Noori, the collected banknotes are destroyed according to a specific procedure.
Speaking to TOLOnews, the Central Bank spokesperson said: “Banknotes worth eight billion afghani have been collected from the markets to be destroyed. These banknotes are collected and destroyed based on a particular procedure.”
Some shopkeepers in the capital have said that the circulation of worn-out banknotes has negatively affected their business. They called on the Central Bank to adopt measures to prevent the deterioration of the Afghani currency.
Mohammad Naseem, a shopkeeper, told a TOLOnews reporter: “It has a lot of impact because people bring it to us, and we accept it, but when we return it to them, they don’t accept it. Sometimes it’s faded or too worn-out, which causes us a lot of problems.”
Khalid, another shopkeeper, said: “It would be better if clean money was provided to us. We urge the Central Bank to collect old, torn, or invalidated banknotes.”
The existence of worn-out banknotes has been a challenge that citizens of the country have faced not only recently but for many years.
Economic experts have consistently emphasized that the Central Bank must work to promote electronic money to prevent the deterioration of the Afghani currency.
Mohammad Nabi Afghan, an expert on economic issues, said: “Transactions through technology, such as cards, are now common worldwide. Across the globe, electronic methods are used in transactions to preserve currency and to reduce the use of physical money.”
Afghanistan is among the countries where most citizens rely on physical currency for transactions. Since 1939, countries including Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Poland, and France have been responsible for printing Afghan banknotes.