BBC News Online: World: Africa

Somali businessmen condemn fake currency

A group of Somali businessmen have spoken out over the importation of fake banknotes into the country.

In a statement, forty-five members of an association of businessmen in the capital, Mogadishu, said the millions-of-dollars-worth of fake shilling notes were imported by people masquerading as legitimate businessmen.

The latest reported batch of fake notes -- worth about four-million dollars -- is said to have arrived in Mogadishu two weeks ago.

The association's statement comes as the Somali shilling is reported to have hit an all-time low against the United States dollar. A BBC correspondent in Mogadishu says dishonest businessmen keep importing fake currency in the face of ineffective measures by the transitional government to deter them.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service