Somalia’s finance minister, Abdirahman Beileh held talks with leaders of the International Monetary fund (IMF) and World Bank over printing over new currency for Somalia.
Last year, Somalia declared its bid to have new currency with help of IMF.
The state owned media said that Beileh who is currently in U.S. held talks with the officials from the two agencies.
Somali National News Agency (SONNA) noted tat the country plans to have new currency before the end of this year.
“Among the important issues Beileh is discussing with the [leaders of] World Bank and IMF, is means to rump-up the process of printing currency for Somalia which the ministry wants to be implemented with 2018,” reported SONNA.
According to the Ministry of finance, Somali government needs 100 million USD, half of which will go directly towards printing the new money and other half to keep the value of currency during circulation.
Early this year, Central Bank Governor Bashir Isse Ali said the country will have high denominations of currency notes for the first time in history.
Ali pointed out the currency will comprise of denominations such as 20,000, 10,000, 5,000 of Somali Shilling notes.
The governor confirmed that the money will have security feature making it difficult for criminals to reproduce.
“The Central Bank and related agencies are now in the process of coming up with the notes with security features which will not be vulnerable to counterfeit,” said Ali.
Somalia’s financial system has not been functioning properly since 1991 when the country plunged into civil war.
The country’s old currency with one denomination of 1000 shilling note is gradually disappearing as it was already overpowered by U.S. dollars and counterfeit Somali Shillings printed within the country.
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