Increased illegal printing of Somali shillings

In the 2006 2007 budget, expected revenue 2.5 trillion shillings.

Individual requests vary from 50 million to 500 million shillings per day, equivalent to 2,000 to 20,000 (calculated at an exchange rate of 25,000 shillings to the United States dollar).

Counterfeit Somali shillings are being printed in Mogadishu and, allegedly, in Nairobi.

Apparently the same printers are reported to have in stock illegal shillings worth about 2 million.

The amounts vary from a few United States dollars to over 1,000 worth of shillings for each occasion.

The demand was declined by the printers owing to the small sum of money requested and in view of the fact that the clients were asking to print the equivalent of 30,000 shillings per United States dollar, when the printers were offering 25,000 shillings to the United States dollar.

In some regions of the country, such as Puntland , the exchange rate topped 13,000 shillings to the United States dollar.

For example, during the second week of January 2005, a khat trader placed an order to print 500 million counterfeit shillings ( 20,000).

She would go into the city at night with about 20 girls, look for work, and sometimes come back with a few shillings, or sometimes with nothing.

In early October 2004, during and immediately after the election of the Transitional Federal Government, the exchange rate of the illegal currency appreciated from 25,000 to 18,000 shillings to the United States dollar.

Armstrong explained the brutal reality of their situation they paid 1,500 shillings in rent, about 20 bucks a month, a relatively high price for a Kenyan shantytown, and they could not afford to be late with the money.