A member of the parliament and a former state minister of finance has warned the government against printing new currency. MP Abdullahi Mohamed Nur, who is also the Secretary of the Parliament Committee on Budget & Finance, said there were many challenges that need to be addressed by the government before it embarks on printing the new currency. The challenges include securing the huge funds needed to finance printing and keeping the value of the new currency, political stability and a reaching a consensus with the regional states, improving security conditions, setting mechanisms for tackling corruption among other challenges, he cited.
He called for the government to put in place and implement all the pre-required conditions rather than embark on such huge task for political propaganda and ignoring all the potential economic risks involving in the process. His remarks came after the Somali government this week released the design of new banknotes to be printed this year.
He also cited Al-Shabaab as another main challenge to printing the new currency as it will threaten business people for using the new currency. He, thus, called for the defeat of Al-Shabaab and addressing the issue of Somaliland before the new currency is printed. He also pictured a grim picture of the central bank and said it doesn’t have the capacity to manage such a task for the time being.
