The Islamic Emirate has denied allegations by the head of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Afghanistan that Afghanistan’s central bank is unable to convert dollars into Afghan currency.
Earlier, Reuters quoted a senior UNDP official as saying that although the organization had $135 million in the International Bank of Afghanistan (AIB), it could not access the funds because they are not being converted into Afghan currency.
According to the official, the transfer of funds happened based on a "clear promise" of the central bank that "cash will be automatically converted to afghanis."
"This did not happen," said Abdallah al Dardari, head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Afghanistan, at the ACAMS Global Sanctions Space Summit, adding that UNDP itself has "$30 million stuck at AIB that I cannot convert to afghanis and without afghanis, as you can imagine, we cannot implement all our programs."
The Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid on Friday reacted to al Dardari’s remarks, saying the UN did not transfer dollars to the central bank for conversion and if the funds had been transferred, the bank would have converted it into afghanis.
"The central bank’s inability to convert dollars into afghanis is untrue. So far no money has been paid to the central bank from the United Nations or any other address. The rumors spread about this are not true," Mujahid tweeted.
Da Afghanistan Bank (central bank) also denied reports that it is unable to convert US dollars into Afs, saying that it is in contact with the banks in Afghanistan to convert dollars into Afs.
Meanwhile, the central bank says it has enough money to exchange afghanis into other currencies or vice versa.In the meantime, on Saturday the Money Exchangers’ Union in Sarai Shahzada, the biggest money exchanging market in the country, said the value of the afghani against the dollar has risen. According to the union, one dollar is exchanged at 89 Afs today, while yesterday one dollar was exchanged at 95 afs in the market.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/26724
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