Safaricom shops will not take old Ksh 1000 currency notes after Thursday, September 26.
This is according to a communication issued to its regional outlets on Saturday, September 21.
"We will no longer accept the old generation notes effective Saturday, September 25. This is to allow us to have a seamless transition to the new currency before the deadline of Monday, September 30," the statement read.
This is four days before the Monday, September 30, deadline issued by the Central Bank of Kenya to take the old notes out of circulation.
On Friday, September 13, CBK reminded Kenyans to visit all relatives with advanced age, to make sure that they had exchanged the old currency notes.
"Please visit them. Call them. Help them. There shall be no deadline extension," CBK stated on their social media platforms.
On June 1, 2019, during Madaraka Day celebrations, CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge noted that his team had since reached the conclusion that the Ksh1,000 notes were being used for illicit financial flows in the country and region.
Thirty days after he had made the speech, currency outside of banks dropped by almost a tenth, in what was a pointer to the desperation by Kenyans to beat the deadline.
One month after the ultimatum was announced, CBK disclosed that Ksh25 billion, in old Ksh 1,000 notes, was exchanged for the new currency.
