BEAC’s new bank notes lack durability - Survey

Barely a few months after the Bank of Central African States, BEAC; put in circulation its new banknotes, public disgust over its durability is already at its peak.

The new bank notes, printed in 500, 1000 and 2000 FCFA denominations were released on March 6, 2015. The notes which the bank officials initially described as resilient caught the attention of users who considered them an improvement of the former leaves.

BEAC’s press release which made public the circulation of the new banknotes even stated that the notes had been specially treated to prevent rapid deterioration. They appealed to the public to get used to the notes and to refrain from treating them like counterfeit or even doubt their authenticity.

However, the public is yet to reconcile the initial declaration of BEAC with what they now find in the banknotes. The earlier trumpeted durability is being questioned because the slippery, smooth and shiny feature of the notes fades away in no time, leaving it with a dull and unpleasant look.

The irony is that the notes tend out to be worse than the previous ones – the plastic paper on the leaf peels off at any given moment. The paper band in most occasions separates from the note and gives an unappealing sight.

A woman vendor made a mockery of the notes when she told the Cameroon Journal that the 500, 1000 and 2000 FRS bills are laminated because they are the poor man’s money and are likely to be handled poorly at Mokolo and other big markets in the country. According to her, the 5000 and 10,000 notes are for the rich and likely to be handled with care. She said the 5000 and 10000 notes rarely get deformed.

“Sometimes one holds the laminated bank notes before realizing that they swell and peel off… I hate those bank notes even ‘Kumba made’ is better,” a store keeper said.

Some users have blamed the fast deteriorating nature of the new banknotes to poor handling. Ayuk Jones, a taxi driver observed that: “This issue of the new bank notes fast depreciating can also be blamed on careless handling.

Take for example, a palm oil dealer who after serving a customer receives the money immediately with his palms still soiled with oil. How then will you not expect the notes to not only deteriorate but have their colours changed?”

The new BEAC’s banknotes do not circulate in Cameroon only. They also circulate in other five countries that make up the CEMAC franc zone. They include Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville.

It is not clear whether these countries experience the same trouble Cameroonians do with the banknotes.