According to Head of Banking and Currency Management, Mercy Kumbatila, public funds in excess of MK10 billion were spent to replace lost and damaged money in the last financial year.

Kumbatila said Malawians have a habit of soiling, trampling and squeezing bank notes, leading to such a costly damage.

“As RBM, we spend MK10 billion in replacing damaged notes. This is a huge loss bearing in mind that we are a public institution. This money, if Malawians were careful in handling bank notes, could have been channeled towards servicing other important public functions like medicine. And for 2017, we are projecting to spend about MK13.2 billion,” said Kumbatila.

According to Kumbatila the Central Bank has embarked on a campaign to sensitise the general public on good money handling practices.

In the campaign, RBM is targeting people that handle money in bulks such as masters of ceremonies.
 

Meanwhile, the RBM is promoting electronic payments to minimize the cost of producing and replacing damaged money.