The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has called on Nigerians, especially market women and men not to entertain fear over the newly redesigned Naira notes, assuring that the new Naira denominations were genuine and could not be easily counterfeited.
The Acting Branch Controller, Central Bank, Akure, Mr Samuel Giwa, who made this call on Wednesday, at the sensitization programme for traders at Adedji market, also called on Nigerians, particularly market women, to disregard the rumours making the rounds that the newly redesigned naira notes bleach.
Giwa who allayed the fear of the public that the newly redesigned denominations of naira notes had been counterfeited said the security features in the notes would make it extremely difficult to be forged.
He noted that the introduction of the new notes would go a long way to strengthen the economy, reduce the expenditure on cash management, promote financial inclusion and enhance the CBN’s visibility of the money supply.
He called on the market women not to wait till January 31 which is the deadline for the old notes, encouraging them not to keep cash at home but should cultivate the habit of taking the cash to the bank
He explained that the decision of the CBN to redesign three denominations of the Naira was not targeted at any group or person, adding that the new notes are more durable.
He said currency management in Nigeria has faced several challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.
He said: “a significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with Statistics showing that N2.72 trillion out of the $3.26 trillion currency in circulation as of June 2022 was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country, and supposedly held by members of the public.
“These statistics show that 84.71 per cent of the currency in circulation is outside the vaults of commercial banks, with only 15.29 per cent in the Central Bank and Commercial banks’ vaults.
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“Second, is the worsening shortage of clean and fit banknotes with an attendant negative perception of the CBN and increased risk to financial stability;
“Third, there is increasing ease by criminals and risk of counterfeiting — evidenced by several security reports received at the Central Bank of Nigeria”
Analysing the benefits of the currency redesign to the Nigerian economy, the Controller said “this policy will help to control inflation as the exercise will bring the hoarded currency into the banking system, thereby making monetary policy more effective,
” It will also help with better design and implementation of Monetary Policy as we would have much more accurate data on money supply and monetary aggregates;
“We believe that this exercise would help in increasing financial inclusion, moving towards a more cashless economy, and ensuring greater formalization of the Nigerian economy.
“The currency redesign would assist in the fight against corruption as the exercise would rein in the higher denomination used for corruption, and the movement of such funds from the banking system could be tracked easily.”
He charged members of the public to ensure they deposit to their commercial banks, saying there is no limit to how much a customer can deposit between now and January 31 2023 with no bank charges.
“We encourage the public to explore other payment channels, such as e Naira, POS. electronic transfer, USSD, internet banking, and mobile money operators and agents, for their economic activities”
