Kenyan traders are increasingly adopting the Chinese Yuan rather than the US dollar to settle payments when making purchases, according to information released by the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) on Wednesday, August 2.
Rising Sino-Kenyan trade connections, according to Habil Olaka, CEO of KBA in an interview with Xinhua, was one of the primary causes of the shift.
KBA said that Yuan was emerging as an alternative currency to the US dollar in resolving financial transactions involving trade between Kenya and China due to the prevalence of Chinese projects in the nation.
“What tends to happen between two countries trading, is that they use a currency that is readily available in their countries,” Olaka explained.
The second-largest economy in the world also supplies goods to wholesalers and merchants in Kenya, making the Yuan a useful settlement currency.
The disclosures were made by the KBA CEO while he was overseeing the study’s launch in 2022, the Kenyan Banking Sector Total Tax Contribution.