The Bank of Central African States (BEAC), the common bank for the six-member Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) will release new banknotes mid-December.
The decision to circulate the new range of banknotes of FCFA 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 was reached during an extraordinary session of the Ministerial Committee of the Central African Monetary Union (UMAC) held on November 7, the body said in a release on Tuesday.
According to the release signed by the president of committee Herve Ndoba, UMAC, which oversees the functions of bank whose headquarters are Yaounde, Cameroon, had approved the specimens of the 2020 generation of banknotes that will go into circulation from December 15. It had earlier approved the production of the banknotes in 2019.
Dr Jean Cédric Kouam, the head of monetary and fiscal policy at Nkafu Policy Institute, the Yaounde-based think tank, told The EastAfrican that the injection of new banknotes into the economies of the six countries at a time the current global economic situation is marked by strong inflationary pressures at both national and international level will increase the propensity of economic agents to hold money and, therefore, to consume.
“The increase in consumption will naturally stimulate production and this increase in production could result in a fall in prices, at least at national level. It is therefore a strategy for the Bank of Central African States to guarantee monetary stability in accordance with Article 1 of its Statutes,” Dr Kouam said.
