Kwacha Re-basement (aka. the Death of the Pin)

The Post had as is the pattern of the British papers on which it's modeled, a blaring headline reading:

ATMS RUN OUT OF CASH IN LUSAKA

It's worthwhile to note that as development goes, this story would have been non-existent five years ago (they were always out of cash) or eight (when there were literally a handful of ATMs in the country). 

The run on the machines is somewhat related to the time of year ... it is Christmas, and Zambians joining Planet Capitalism are following the well-trod path of purchasing gifts, particularly for their own children to enjoy and the parents of others to envy.

However, as an unidentified bank official pointed out, "It's not just the usual heightened festive season spending, I think there is also the fears of the kwacha rebasing."

Zambian money currently looks something like this:

 

Denominations range from K50, K100, K500, K1000, K5000 (shown above with front and reverse), K10000, K20000, and K50000. The 'th' sound is different in Bantu languages, so all the currencies with three zeroes are colloquially suffixed as 'pin'. Therefore, a K20000 note is "20 pin" and so on. The current exchange rate is K5,300 to $1.00 USD; essentially, the currency hasn't changed since in the introduction of the K50000 note nine or ten years ago.

Now, for reasons I'm not sure of expressing given my status as a guest in this country (but expressed within this document from the Bank of Zambia), they are killing the pins. Three zeroes will be hacked off each note, ergo K5000 becomes (kwacha rebased) KR5.





The smaller denominations (equal to or less than K1000) will become coins named identical to their predecessors, the "ingwe". Given the prevalence of transactions at value K2,000 and at K100,000, new notes (KR2 and KR100) will also be released.







Internationally, the currency code for the old kwacha is ZMK; on Tuesday

It's somewhat worrying how the transition is simply not getting through to people; I'm sure in the rural areas, people are digging deep holes and stuffing calabashes full of money down them (which will doubtless attract termites by the thousand score). Supposedly, on 1st January, 2013 (next Tuesday), all shops / marketeers will need to post prices in both currencies, and if possible, start paying out the new currency when at all possible. The opportunities for chicanery will be endless ... fake exchange commissions, inflated prices for small items, etc. It will certainly do wonders for already booming calculator sales.

I wonder how it will pan out when paying out bribes to the cops ... will they demand K or KR?

My reaction? Wait. Watch. Pulled out money well in advance. Sleep. Rewrite all my documents with the new values. Y2K all over again.