Malawi to introduce K5000 bank note – Finance Minister

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe  has disclosed that Malawi will  soon introduce the new kwacha note, K5000.

At the moment the highest denomination note is 2,000 kwacha.

However, some economic observers say the K2 000 note has lost value  with a lot of it in circulation resulting in the general public carrying large amounts of cash when doing transactions risking their lives and property.

Gondwe said in an exclusive interview with official Malawi News Agency that  the new bank note will make it easier for people to carry and also cost-cutting in ordering them for government.

“Yes, that is very important because we will serve our foreign currency. It costs 8 million dollars for ordering new bank notes,” said Gondwe.

He downplayed assertions of inflationary pressure as the reason for introducing the higher bank note.

“By the way, do you know that Malawi is the only country in the SADC region with the least banknote? Tanzania has 10,000 bank note and in Uganda is even higher, these denominations save billions of money for a particular country. In brief the monies that are used to finance the production of new currency are very huge. If we have this K5, 000 bank note it will be very good.

“On the contrary, if we continue in the situation we are in without coming up with a higher banknote then we continue losing a lot of millions for replacement of the money. It will be laborious to carry a huge bag with money just to buy one item, but with this new note it becomes so simple,” said Gondwe.

Reserve Bank of Malawi officials  remained mum on details of the planned introduction of a new-bank note and when it will be in circulation.