Bank notes in decorations: It's more than meets the eye

A trader adds the finishing touches to a money bouquet for her client at her Nakuru gift shop on Valentine's Day 2025. [File, Standard]

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) advisory on the use of banknotes in decorations provoked my economic instinct. Before we go to the legal part of it, let’s appreciate the creativity of decorators or better, innovators.

Definitely, a bouquet with banknotes carries some emotional weight. Giving someone a Sh1000 bank note is not the same as sending the same amount on M-Pesa! 

Beyond emotions, the use of money in decorations raised a number of economic issues. It is not just in Kenya. Uganda and Rwanda have raised a similar issue.

One, it can be interpreted as a show off, disdain for the poor who can’t afford such money. But curiously, it’s the unmonied who are most likely to use money in such decorations!

Such decorations give a feeling of money. Would a billionaire partake in such decorations?  Two is why now? The economy has not been very kind to the poor. Is such decorating a way to cheer ourselves up, just as we drink ourselves off when faced with a crisis? 

Three, the use of money in decorations shows our obsession with showing off.

Modesty is seen as old-fashioned, just as honesty is nowadays equated with stupidity.  Four, the use of banknotes could signal something else. We don’t value money as we used to. In economic speak, inflation is real, and possibly above the official rate.

Economic information

We could add that the shilling could be weaker than given by the official exchange rate.

Why are decorations not in dollars or euros? Would CBK still complain if the notes are in Rands or Rupees? Sometimes we get economic information from unusual sources, such as observations.

 Five, I have noted in photos that decorators rarely use Sh1000 banknotes. They use lower-denomination notes. They have less “value.” Who uses coins like ten cents, 50 cents or a shilling? Is that pattern extending to notes? 

Has the disuse of coins led to higher prices as we mark prices upwards? Will the disuse of lower-denomination notes lead to the same? By the way, one use for coins is marking balls on the golf courses. 

Six, there was a time a billion was rare in our financial news, even in budgets and must add scandals.

Today? As we shift to billions and trillions, the small notes shift to decorations. Where are Sh5, ten and Sh20 notes? 

Lastly, the use of money decorations beyond legal consequences is a clear economic message. Our economic growth has performed below expectations.  

We can do better economically if politics were given less attention and our entrepreneurs got their freedom.

Many now live under the long shadow of fear. I leave it to you to find out what they fear.