The Bank of Tanzania is withdrawing some old bank notes introduced between 1985 and 2010 from circulation, the bank said in a recent circular.
The bank asks members of the public to return the bank notes through deposit or exchange, with the following denominations affected:
- Twenty (20)
- Two hundred (200)
- Five hundred (500)
- One thousand (1000)
- Two thousand (2000)
- Five thousand (5000) and
- Ten thousand shillings (1000)
issued from 1985 to 2003, and
- Five hundred bank notes issued in 2010
“This information has reference to the Government Notice No. 857 and 858 published on 11/10/2024 communicating the call in, deposit or exchange, and cessation of old bank notes,” the circular reads.
“The deposit or exchange of old banknotes shall last for a period of three months from 06 January 2025 to 05 of April 2025 upon which they shall cease to be legal tender.”
According to local reports, the 500 Tanzanian bank note has already disappeared from circulation with rumors speculating that the money was so valuable that a single note could fetch thousands in foreign exchange.
The Bank of Tanzania instructed local banks and financial institutions to accept deposits and facilitate over-the-counter exchange of ‘called in’ notes from the public and make the payment of equivalent value in regulated notes.
“The exercise shall only be undertaken at head offices and branches of banks and financial institutions across the country and in any case shall not be facilitated through other points of financial services such as agents and/or ‘wakala.’”
Tanzania issued new series of:
- TZS 500
- TZS 1,000
- TZS 2,000
- TZS 5,000, and
- TZS 10,000
that constituted a new family of bank notes in 2010, rolling them out in circulation from January 1 2011.
In 2020, the country reprinted several bank notes issued in 2010 making some changes in the security features.
The change involved all banknotes in denominations of:
- TZS 1,000
- TZS 2,000
- TZS 5,000 and
- TZS 10,000
Tanzania recently stopped accepting dollar payments in its vibrant tourism sector in an effort to arrest further devaluation of the local shilling.
🇹🇿REGULATION | Tanzania Stops Accepting Dollar Payments in the Tourism Sector to Stabilize the Local Currency
The move is one of the steps taken in recent months to stabilize the local currency which has lost 6% to the dollar in the last one year, with a dollar fetching 2,655… pic.twitter.com/qqkQzyc2Kt
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) July 16, 2024
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