Kenya’s Sh1,000 note now makes up 86.3 percent of all banknote value, its highest in over a decade, undoing a 2019 push to curb reliance on big notes.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows the largest note has tightened its grip even as digital payments spread, leaving the cash system pulling in two directions at once. Mobile money is absorbing small transactions while physical currency concentrates at the top.
Total banknotes in circulation reached Sh388.4 billion, about 2.95 billion dollars, by December, up from Sh360.46 billion a year earlier. Cash held outside banks, a gauge of money moving among households and businesses, rose 10.4 percent to Sh323.2 billion.
The Sh1,000 note drove almost all of that growth, expanding by Sh26.66 billion over the year while smaller notes barely moved. The Sh500 note, once a mainstay, now accounts for just 4.1 percent of value, and all denominations below Sh1,000 together make up less than a tenth.
Dominic Murage, acting chief executive of Consolidated Bank of Kenya, said the shift could reflect heavier issuance of big notes or changing habits, with “the public is holding a larger share of cash in Sh1,000 notes.” Economists link the trend to inflation, larger transaction sizes, and the convenience of moving bulk cash in wholesale trade, transport, and property deals.
The concentration reverses Kenya’s 2019 currency overhaul, when the central bank withdrew the old Sh1,000 note to fight counterfeiting and illicit flows. More than 209 million notes were returned, and the high note’s share briefly fell before climbing back. A new series printed by Germany’s Giesecke and Devrient has since restored it to the centre of cash use.
Kenya is not alone in wrestling with high value notes. India and Singapore have withdrawn or stopped issuing large denominations to improve transparency. Big notes ease legitimate bulk payments but can also aid money laundering, a tension regulators continue to weigh.
Cash remains vital in rural areas and informal settlements where digital access is patchy. But its makeup is changing, with fewer small notes and growing dependence on a single denomination, raising the question of whether that structure reflects efficiency or a narrowing of the cash base.
