Out with the old: Throwing money down the drain

I’m sure many of you have encountered this problem. Be it on the bus or at the market, people have taken to refusing old notes. Taxi touts will sometimes refuse your money when you don’t have any other money on you for the fare. “Everyone thinks they have the right to refuse the old note,” says Lydia Kabatesi, a businesswoman. The money becomes useless and people even throw away the notes. Andrew Mugabo, an employee of a prominent bank in town, says that by law no one can refuse money in any transaction if the money is legal tender. “It is a matter of knowing how things work, some people think that when that note becomes old, that is the end of it,” explains Sylvia Uwamahoro. She continues that she has no problem with keeping old notes because she knows that the next time she goes the bank, she can give them her old notes. She sees no point in quarreling with a taxi tout or shopkeeper over such a simple matter. “I really hate it when someone consumes my precious time negotiating the fate of the old note as if I have been with it all its life, these people should save our time,” laments Geoffrey Kanimba, a technician. Innocent Hitimana, a taxi tout, thinks otherwise. “At any slight mistake, an old note will get torn and it will become useless which is a very big loss for a person like me to whom every penny counts,” he says. “I cannot accept a note which is in such a poor condition because I know that if I go for shopping the next day, I won’t get all I need with that money, so it is a matter of everyone guarding their interests,” explains Paul Ndizihiwe, a shopkeeper. Others like Abdul Karim Twiringiyimana say that he cannot accept old money because he rarely goes to the bank. He adds that it some times amuses him that the person who gave you a torn note cannot accept it the next morning. To avoid these problems he just doesn’t accept it in the first place. Ends