The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that it is supplying banks with more of the newly designed Naira notes as concerns over their apparent disappearance increase.
This was said in a statement emailed to our correspondent on Sunday by Dr Isa AbdulMumim, the CBN’s acting director of corporate communications. Banks are anticipated to distribute the new currencies to their clients through ATMs and over-the-counter transactions.
The statement by the CBN read, “We wish to reiterate that the new and old currency notes have been circulating side by side just as the bank has been taking delivery of a good quantity of the redesigned bank notes from the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Limited.
“Furthermore, we are committed to supplying the approved indent for the smooth running of the economy. We, therefore, urge members of the public to disregard any report suggesting a phase-out of the redesigned currency.”
The CBN re-stated that the redesigned and old notes would continue to be accepted as legal tender and circulate side-by-side for transactions ahead of the December 31, 2023 deadline, when the old N1000, N500 and N200 banknotes will eventually be phased out.
The PUNCH recently reported that the currency in circulation in the country jumped by N701.4tn in one month to hit N1.6tn in March 2023 after the CBN reversed its policy on the naira redesign.
According to the CBN, currency-in-circulation is defined as currency outside the vaults of the central bank; that is, all legal tender currencies in the hands of the public and in the vaults of the Deposit Money Banks.
The currency in circulation in the country had dipped by 235.03 per cent to N982.09bn as of the end of February from N3.29tn as of the end of October 2022, on the back of the naira redesign policy of the CBN.
Figures obtained from the CBN revealed that N2.3tn was mopped up from circulation during the period under review.
The hardest hit by the policy had been the most vulnerable members of the population (the poor, the unbanked and the rural dwellers), the report added.
The Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, had in October 2022, announced plans to redesign the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes.
The governor decried the challenges associated with currency management, including the hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 80 per cent of currency-in-circulation was outside the vaults of commercial banks.
