In "principle there is a date" set for July, said the person responsible last Thursday. "When we launched the program everything was for June but, not being June it will be July", added the responsible, quoted by the newspaper OPaís.
It is expected that from next month new banknotes will start to circulate in the amounts of 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10,000 kwanzas. Among the main differences, is the fact that the new notes will be illustrated only with the face of the first President of the country, António Agostinho Neto, thus leaving aside the face of the former president, José Eduardo dos Santos.
The notes will also be illustrated with figures of the natural wonders of Angola. The note of 200 kwanzas will be illustrated with the Black Stones of Pungo Andongo (Malanje), the Tundavala Slit (Huila) will be in the note of 500 and the Cordillera of the Central Plateau (Huambo) will be in the note of 1000 kwanzas. The 2000 kwanzas banknote will be illustrated with the Serra da Leba (Huila) and the Ruins of the Cathedral of São Salvador do Congo (Zaire) and the Zenzo Caves (Uige) will illustrate the 5000 kwanzas banknote and the 10,000 kwanzas banknote, respectively.
In addition, this new kwanza family will be more secure: the banknotes will be made of materials that make them difficult to counterfeit, as well as polymer (plastic) substrates that will make them more resistant than paper banknotes currently in circulation.
The circulation of the new kwanza banknotes was approved in January this year. In March, the President of the Republic enacted the law, which was published at the end of that month, thus fulfilling all the conditions for the issue of the new banknotes to proceed.
