Somalia urged to fix security and political challenges

0

Former Somalia minister and current lawmaker Abdullahi Mohamed Nur has called on the government to consider addressing security and political challenges before printing the new currency for the country.

Nur said the government should secure funds needed to finance the printing of the new notes, reach out to regional leaders and stabilize the country by flushing out al-Shabab militants before it could start printing the new notes.

Nur who is also the Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance said the government should consider political stability, holding consultations with the regional states and putting measures to fight corruption as well as consider potential economic risks involved in the printing process.

“What is more important than printing is to put in place and implement all the pre-required conditions rather than issuing new notes with the intention of political propaganda and ignoring all the potential economic risks,” Nur said late Tuesday.

His remarks came after Finance Minister Abdirahman Duale Baileh on June 10 said the Horn of African nation’s government will print new currency notes to replace the old ones currently in use that were largely out of circulation.

Baileh who displayed samples of the new 5,000 and 10,000 shillings denomination however did not reveal the date for the start of the currency printing process.

Experts have raised questions of what the conversion rate would be of the current Somali shilling for the new official ones. The current currency is mostly used in the less well-off rural population.

The experts also question what the government would use to back its new currency, noting that previous efforts by the successive governments to print new currencies have failed due to these challenges including debt relief conditions imposed by the international lenders. Enditem