Central Bank of Tanzania in Background, with Tanzania Shilings in foreground
By Jaston Binala.
Fake currency notes in Tanzanian legal tender, particularly the larger denomination Tsh. 10,000/-, are printed by crooks in neighboring countries, the Bank of Tanzania has alleged.
Speaking in Dodoma, central Tanzania, during a recent workshop on the state of the financial sector in the country, BoT officials identified the regions of Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Kagera and Kigoma as the leading parts of the country with the highest incidence of counterfeit currency notes, adding that evidence pointed the money was not printed locally..
The Custodian of Currency in the Currencies Department of the central Bank, Nolasco Maluli, said some of the counterfeit currency is found in the bulk cash that commercial banks deposit at BoT. The central bank which is the banker of banks discovers the counterfeits when sorting currency to separate re-usable cash from that which must be destroyed to keep only good currency in circulation.
Maluli said all the notes found with holes in them and those with ink marks are removed from circulation along with the counterfeits, adding that the problem of counterfeit currency was persistent.
“The problem of counterfeit currency is serious,” the Custodian said without giving exact figures. He also complained that Tanzanians did not have a culture of keeping currency clean, adding that it was important to keep notes clean because currency carries with it the face of the nation.
Clean cash tells visitors this is an orderly nation while dirty currency says the opposite. The custodian called on people to be cautious when receiving money to identify counterfeits which lack the necessary security features, although at a quick glance may look genuine. Security features include the water mark picture of Tanzania’s first President Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, which are all believed hard to fake.
In 2013, Police in Arusha intercepted a huge consignment of counterfeit bank notes which was about to be transported to Dar es Salaam. The 6,140 neatly packed stacks of fake notes of the Tsh. 10,000 denomination contained the fake value of Tsh. 61,400,000. The money was planned for shipment through the vehicle Dar Express.
The plans aborted when the company’s courier division demanded to see the sealed package containing the bank notes, and when in a twist of fate a motorcycle rider reported the suspicious package to the police because the package owner had paid the motorcycle rider for transportation service using a fake note.
In an explanation, the central bank Operations Department Manager of the Bank of Tanzania Dodoma Branch, Mr. Harry Mwansembo said the source of counterfeit currency was determined to be the regions sharing borders with neighbouring countries. It is believed by the central bank the counterfeit notes are printed in the neighbouring countries.
Kigoma region shares a border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda, while the regions of Arusha and Kilimanjaro share the international border with neighboring Kenya. Kagera region shares borders with Rwanda and Uganda.
Responding to a question on whether there was need to change the faces of the existing Tanzania currency notes as a way to mitigate problems associated with counterfeiting, Mwansembo said it is unlikely that the face of the Tanzania notes will be changed any time soon because the existing notes have excellent security features which are extremely difficult to fake. Tanzanian notes contain seven security features.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) is meanwhile considering the use of Short Message Service (SMS) to educate the public on legal tender security features as part of strategies to prevent fabrication and distribution of counterfeit notes. The bank believes community awareness is vital if this problem is to be dealt with successfully.
