Barely a week after the Government of Liberia through the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) released the new banknotes to the public; several Liberians are expressing unhappiness over the lack of adequate awareness on the new money across the country.
The new banknotes are in categories of 5.00, 10.00, 20.00, 50.00, 100.00.00 and 500.00 with different individual colored features to distinguish the denominations from one another.
Some argued that for government to change the old currency is not a wrong thing, but the manner in which it was brought to the public without enough public awareness has resulted to some citizens rejecting it during business transaction.
Christian Freeman, a money exchanger at University of Liberia said the Central Bank of Liberia did not carry on sufficient awareness on the introduction of the new currency.
“The introduction of the money is confusing. Like me, I live in Monrovia where the money was introduced and is presently being circulated, but I have not even seen it and I do not know about its introduction. The government through the CBL did not do the Liberian public justice by introducing new money without the citizens being aware.”
However, CBL communications director, Cyrus W. Badio, who did not deny nor confirm the accusation, said Wednesday on state radio that the bank has planned to send out a team across the country to continue the awareness process as part of effort to increase awareness and to adequately inform the locals about the banknotes. Read more on this.