Govt to spend MK5.8 billion in ordering new K5, 000 banknotes

Minister of Finance and Economic Development Goodall Gondwe has said that government will spend K5.8 billion to order new K5, 000 banknotes.

Gondwe said this on Monday when disclosing plans that government is on the verge of introducing MK5,000 banknote.

Normally when a bigger banknote is introduced, people associate the development with increase of prices of goods to follow. However, the minister says it is not true that when that happens then the prices of goods will go up on the market.

“It’s very true that the Ministry of Finance is pushing for the production of K5, 000 bank notes soon.

“It costs eight million dollars (about K5.8 billion) for ordering new bank notes, and it is a lie that when we come up with this new bank note then we will have prices of goods on the market increasing,” Gondwe said.

He further explained that Malawi is one of the few countries in the SADC Region with the least banknote giving an example of neighbouring Tanzania, which he said has a 10,000-shilling banknote while beyond SADC the banknote for Uganda is even higher.”