The Central Bank of Kenya has announced that the country will pay German firm Giesecke+Devrient Currency Technologies (G+D) Sh. 14.2 billion to print new money that will replace current old notes.

This has been announced by the CBK Governor Kamau Thugge. G+D will now officially replace Britain’s De La Rue that had been printing cash in Kenya for donkey years.

According to Thugge, G+D was picked through a classified procurement process that became necessary after Kenya went into the high risk of stock out of bank notes.

“The classified procurement process was therefore necessary to avert a stock-out crisis. The procurement was conducted in accordance with the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, and with the approval of the National Security Council and the Cabinet,” said Thugge.

“The cost of the banknotes was USD109,422,740 using the exchange rate at the date of the contract signing. The contract for the 2019 series banknotes was worth USD112,856,000.”

The new banknotes will feature the signatures of CBK governor Dr. Kamau Thugge and Treasury Permanent Secretary Dr. Chris Kiptoo. They will also feature the year of print (for example 2024) and will have new security threads with colour-changing effects that will be unique to each denomination.

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According to the CBK, all existing banknotes will remain legal tender and will circulate alongside the new releases. “The rest of the features remain the same as those of the series issued in 2019. All banknotes currently in circulation remain legal tender and will circulate alongside the released banknotes,” Thugge had said in an earlier statement.

The new version of the currency notes, claims the CBK, will have a distinct feel as you run fingers over them. In the Sh. 1,000 note for instance, the words Kenya, 1,000 value and the edge will be well defined so as to feel the texture.