Solomon Islanders urged to take ownership of currency

Solomon Islands currency notes.

Solomon Islanders are advised to take ownership of the country’s currency especially the handling of notes and coins.

Chief Manager for Currency and Banking Operations at the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, Daniel Haridi reiterated.

With records showing an increase of visitor arrivals by the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau and the National Statistics Office, the first thing visitors would look for is our currency.

Mr Haridi said our currency speaks of who we Solomon Islanders are as they are our silent ambassadors.

“The first thing that our visitors will look for is the cash to exchange with their foreign currencies so they can use it. Now imagine if someone comes in and saw gravity on our notes or writing, phone numbers or betel-nut stain or tobacco stain on our notes, imagine that person’s reactions when he saw these.

“This already gave him a negative reaction about us especially the way we handle our public utilities.”

Mr Haridi added, in 2017 CBSI destroyed a total of 99.89-million dollars in bank notes at their face value, around eight million dollars in bank notes per month.

“In 2016 it’s 78.68-million and if you divide that by 12 you can get the average number of notes we had destroyed per month. For example let’s say 99.89-million face value of the notes destroyed last year and per month gives around 8.32-million notes destroyed per month” he said.

“That’s for last year’s statistics and as I’ve mentioned it depends on each year and the use and the number of notes issued in circulation and how people handle the notes.”

CBSI encourages people to keep their money in money bags or purses to ensure longevity of our bank notes.

By: Rickson Bau

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