NBE Extends Birr Changeover Deadline in Tigray

Mar 6 , 2021


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The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has extended the window to exchange old banknotes for new ones in Tigray Regional State until March 19, 2021. People who are still holding the old notes will have to make the change at a bank branch that is still operational in the region between March 8 and March 19. Changing Birr notes has been problematic due to the ongoing war in the Regional State, and the NBE had previously extended the changeover deadline for cash amounting to less than 100,000 Br by 14 days. Banknotes of 10, 50 and 100 Br denominations were exchanged for new versions in mid-September last year. The government also introduced the 200 Br denomination. The rest of the nation changed the notes by mid-December of last year. Across all regional states, transactions using the old notes were outlawed on December 1, 2020, which was about a month after the war in Tigray broke out.


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