The need to preserve physical cash has led to the innovative use of polymer as a durable, secure, and sustainable alternative material for banknote production.
The first recorded use of polymer notes was in Australia (1988) when the $10 bill was replaced in celebration of the nation’s bicentennial anniversary.
The Australian dollar was completely switched to polymer banknotes in 1996. Other countries like New Zealand and Romania followed suit in 1999 and 2003 respectively.
African countries have also joined the league of nations that have converted some of their bank notes to polymer.
10 African countries that first introduced polymer banknotes
The following table sourced from Visualcapitalist shows the year some African countries transitioned to the use of polymer notes for some of their currencies:
| S/N | Country | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nigeria | 2007 |
| 2 | Mozambique | 2011 |
| 3 | Cape Verde | 2014 |
| 4 | The Gambia | 2014 |
| 5 | Mauritania | 2014 |
| 6 | Botswana | 2018 |
| 7 | Morocco | 2019 |
| 8 | Angola | 2020 |
| 9 | Namibia | 2020 |
| 10 | Egypt | 2022 |
From the table, Nigeria was the first African country to adopt polymer notes on February 28, 2007, when new versions of the ₦5 to ₦50 banknotes were introduced.
When the Ex-CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi took over, the ₦5, ₦10 and ₦50 were also changed to polymer notes on September 30, 2009 thus, all lower denomination banknotes were now printed in the polymer substrate.
Polymer banknotes are made from synthetic polymer substrates (polypropylene) that consist of chains of joined individual molecules or monomers. Notes made from such materials have many built-in security features that cannot be included in paper banknotes.
Also, polymer notes are stronger, printable and less susceptible to dirt.
There are, however, some disadvantages of the notes like fading easily, not being easily foldable, sticky when wet and reacting to hot objects or heat generally.