{Rwanda National Police (RNP) has called on the business community to be strict against counterfeit currency and make immediate reports to Police whenever they suspect anyone of being involved in the scam.}
The call follows a case on February 19 in Nyarugunga Sector of Kicukiro District, when a 22 year old man identified as Issa Bizimungu was arrested with 17 fake notes a denominations of Rwf5, 000.
He was arrested at a shop where he had gone to buy goods, but the shop owner alerted Police after realizing that the money offered was fake.
Police arrived at the scene immediately and arrested him.
He is currently held at Kanombe Police Station as investigations continue.
“Police has the capacity to investigate and apprehend culprits in the shum activity of manufacturing and distributing counterfeit currency; public participation is very important, especially when it is evident that sharing timely information is key in preventing crimes and making arrests,” Superintendent Modeste Mbabazi, Police Spokesperson for the Central region said.
He also advised shops and service providers to install money counters and fake money detectors to ensure that they are not conned by counterfeit criminals.
“Some counterfeit cash is very hard to detect with the naked eye, and if exchanged for goods, it cuts into profits at any business. There are gadgets that have made it easier to detect and that is why it is advisable for businesses to own one,” he said.
Police is at the helm of investigations aimed at ending the scourge of spreading counterfeit money into the economy – and just last week, an operation led to the arrest of three individuals who possessed fake currency amounting to Rwf1.3 million.
Counterfeit or forged money is not considered a major problem in Rwanda, but one cannot ignore the fact that there are forged currency notes in circulation, in various denominations, and can haunt the economy if not checked collectively at an early stage.
Articles 601 to 602 of the Rwandan penal code criminalize and punish those who falsify or alter coins and bills which are legal tender. The articles also punish those, who knowingly circulates fake monies and those who acquires fake currencies unknowingly, but circulates them after discovering they are counterfeit
Leave a Reply