Food trade in the Kenyan town of Mandera has ground to a halt as Somali traders from across the border in Beled-Hawo are no longer accepting Kenyan currency.
Yurub Ahmed, a food store owner in Bula Janefa neighborhood in Mandera, said the closure by the Kenyan government of the money firms had affected her business.
“When I went to a food store in Beled-Hawo with Kenyan shillings, I was informed they only transacted in US dollars. Business has been affected by this move because we buy food items from there,” she said.
She added her other business, a restaurant in Mandera, had also had to close.
Amina Ahmed from the Ethiopian border town of Suuf, faced a similar situation when she came to Beled-Hawo to buy food with Kenyan currency.
“I was forced to switch to Mandera to buy food stuff from there [Kenya]. This has greatly impacted on the economy,” she added.
The deputy chairman of Beled-Hawo business association, Abdi Hussein Joge, told Radio Ergo’s reporter businessmen from the border towns of Elwak, Damasa and Beled Hawo had been using the Kenya shilling in business transactions for 25 years.
Mohamed Irshad, manager of a remittance company in Beled-hawo, said they could no longer take in Kenya shillings as they had no means to change them to hard currency since the Kenyan government’s closure of their offices in Kenya.
The Mandera business community called on the Kenyan government to allow Somali money transfer agencies to resume operations to facilitate the resumption of vital trade.
