Taliban Claims New Agreements Signed For Printing of Afghani Banknotes

Hedayatullah Badri, acting governor of the Taliban-controlled Central Bank on Tuesday, claimed that agreements have been signed with international companies for printing new banknotes.

He did not provide further details about these international companies.

British, Polish, and French companies were printing Afghani banknotes earlier.

Following complaints from Afghan citizens regarding the old Afghani banknotes, the United States agreed to print banknotes worth 10 billion Afghanis through a Polish company and transferred that to the Central Bank of Afghanistan.

The printing costs of these banknotes have been paid from Afghanistan’s central bank reserves that is based in Switzerland under the control of the US and Swiss authorities.

Senior Taliban officials are on the blacklist of the UN and have remained under sanctions and aren’t allowed to travel outside Afghanistan. On the other hand, no country has recognised the Taliban government as the legitimate Afghan government. Nonetheless, it is not clear which countries and which companies have reached an agreement with the Taliban over the printing of Afghani banknotes.

The acting governor of the Taliban-controlled Central Bank in a meeting with the Taliban’s acting prime minister once again claimed that as a result of the Central Bank’s policies, the value of Afghanistan’s currency has remained stable.