Afghans ditch old banknotes

The initial deadline had to be extended by a month

Afghans rushed to swap the last of their old banknotes for new currency on Thursday, the final day of a three-month transition period.

Dozens of Kabul residents queued up outside banks to trade old afghanis for the updated version, which retains the name but has three zeros knocked off.

Almost all the old money has been collected. We no longer have crowds coming with huge stacks of money

Central bank spokesman Ghulam Mohammad Fayez

The government hopes the new currency will boost its control over monetary policy.

It aims to make cash transactions easier and take illegally printed notes out of the system.

Lax controls had allowed three separate currencies - some printed by warlords - to flourish side by side.

Extra security

"I have over 12 million afghanis [about $270] and want to get new notes for them," said one Kabul resident, Sayed Shoaib, outside a bank in the centre of the capital.

Raqib Bullah, a money-changer at an open-air market in Kabul, said: "We've had a lot more people coming to change them than usual. Nobody wants to hold on to old afghanis; everybody's trying to get rid of them."

The new notes first hit the streets of the capital on 7 October.

Over 18 trillion afghanis have been bought back

An initial deadline, set for December, was extended by a month because of problems transporting new notes to remote areas.

Central bank spokesman, Ghulam Mohammad Fayez, said banks would stay open until 7pm on Thursday.

The central bank has paid $100 million more than expected to buy back old notes from Afghans and has collected more than 18 trillion old afghanis so far.

Extra security had been posted around the central bank in Kabul for a possible last-minute rush.

However, Mr Fayed said: "Almost all the old money has been collected. We no longer have crowds coming with huge stacks of money to trade in."

Counterfeiters

Another Kabul money-changer, Abdullah Wali Ahmed Zai, said: "We haven't changed any of that old stuff for days. I'm glad not to see it. Those old afghanis gave me a headache."

The government's new currency seems to have stabilised the foreign exchange.

The afghani dropped as low as 78,000 to the dollar last month but has since strengthened to 44,000 old afghanis, or 44 new afghanis, market traders said.

However, it has not killed off all the counterfeiters.

About 200,000 fake new notes, worth about $4,000, were seized recently by authorities in Ghazni province, south-east of the capital.