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AROUND THE WORLD 1: Cleaning Dirty Money

Eight countries in West Africa will literally launder their money as they plan to retire over 1 billion dollars and replace them with new, clean bills. The currency being used now has severely deteriorated since it was originally put into circulation in 1992. People have complained of the bills being smelly and potential carriers of disease. One merchant in Senegal went so far as to claim that ninety-five percent of people become sick due to the handling of dirty money.

The eight countries in French-speaking West Africa that plan to use the new currency are Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo, and Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony. Seven of the countries slated for the new currency were former French colonies and all eight countries will use the CFA franc by January 1. West Africans will have the chance to turn in their old bills for new bills beginning this week.

Another reason for the replacement of currency is some large bank robberies that occurred in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Counterfeiting has also been a problem since 2000 and some merchants will not accept large bills in the old-style currency.

The new bills will have shiny strips to make counterfeiting more difficult and feature updated designs of African art and animals.

West Africa is mostly a cash-based society, which places a lot of pressure on currency in the form of germs, dirt, sweat, and cooking oil. In manual labor, for example, bills are passed from fishing boats to pockets to markets through many hands. Other financial options such as credit cards and electronic banking have not strongly taken root in the area.

--Written by Renee Clara

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