The people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region are getting fourteen days extra time to change old banknote (birr), the National Bank of Ethiopia on Wednesday announced.
Accordingly, people in Tigray can change old banknotes starting from December 30 including weekends for the next two weeks.
Banknote changes in the region were suspended following a ‘law enforcement operation’ which the federal government launched in the region on November 4, 2020, after Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces attacked the federal armed forces.
All regulations introduced during the banknote change will be implemented in the course of collecting old notes, the Bank said.
Banks in the region are required to send weekly reports to the National Bank of Ethiopia, the bank’s statement reads.
This time around the maximum amount that people could exchange with the new banknotes is less than 100,000 Ethiopian birr. The reason is that the time given for exchanging amounts up to 1.5 million Ethiopian Birr had expired before the law enforcement operation was started on November 4.
Ethiopia introduced currency changes in September 2020 in what was said to be was a move to combat corruption and illicit trade.
This is another great example of Abiy’s honest effort to be constructive and logical. Tigrayans have been beset by the war and hence their need to have an extension to have the opportunity to do the same as others.