Liberia: CBL Blames Commercial Banks for Poor Visibility of Coins

.... According to William Jlopleh, Director for Banking and Finance at the CBL, and Christopher Wallace, Director for Economic Policy,  the issues of poor visibility lie squarely with commercial banks that have not designated specific tellers to disburse coins. 

Two senior officials of the Central Bank of Liberia have criticized commercial banks and other financial institutions across the country for causing the freshly issued coins to be unpopular in the Liberian market.

The coins, which are in the lower domination of  L$5 and$10 are limited in circulation despite being 58 million pieces, carrying a value of  L$452,900,000 and intended to solve the liquidity needs of smaller denominations.

But this has not been the case since the CBL reintroduced coins on the market —  the first in Liberia's postwar history. 

According to William Jlopleh, Director for Banking and Finance at the CBL, and Christopher Wallace, Director for Economic Policy,  the issues of poor visibility lie squarely with commercial banks that have not designated specific tellers to disburse coins. 

“If you have a teller who is paying both US dollars and Liberian dollars and you also want them to do coins it makes it a little bit complicated so you have to have a dedicated teller to do coins.”

According to Jlopleh, fifty million of the coins have entered the market to ensure that there are enough available.  However, only fewer cities, towns, Villages and counties are using the coins. 

Wallace also claimed that the only means by which CBL has to infuse money on the market is through commercial banks, and they managed to disburse large amounts of coins during last year's festive season. 

“One of the issues we had with the commercial banks was the issue of space. They said they had not created space. The Central Bank made provision for the coins so the commercial banks have to do the same and they must be able to help infuse the coin,” he said.

In Liberia, only a few counties have banks due to bad roads and poor infrastructure. Those counties mostly rely on mobile and Orange money for the circulation of money. 

“Nobody should reject it [coins] because it is punishable by law. we can’t allow people to reject banknotes. it has not come to the attention of the Central Bank.  We just hear on the air,” he added.