Some Sh7.3 billion of Sh1,000 notes were not returned, rendering them worthless piece of paper, CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference, Njoroge said that out of 217 million Sh1,000 notes, 209.6 million were returned by the end of the demonetisation process on September 30.
He noted that the value of the money that was not returned is equivalent to the value lost during the Goldenberg case.
“Demonetisation has been successful because we have completed it smoothly, with AML/CFT filters firmly in place, and kept out money whose owners did not want to be subjected to the relevant checks in the system,” he said.
“There will be a continuation of investigations and maintenance of the current poise. The exercise also gave a good start to other agencies — KRA, EACC, FRC, DCI,” he noted.
The volume of total transactions just in August alone was 161,082,470, to give a sense of scale, of which 3,172 suspicious transactions were flagged during the demonetisation period.
Ninety-six per cent of transactions were under Sh500,000,while 99 per cent were under Sh1,000,000.
He also dismissed money laundering claims saying, “Some of the stories that have been told of people buying big-ticket items such as cars in cash are quite fanciful.”
