CBN Denies the Lack of New Naira Notes
By Kasim Isa Muhammad
25 January, 2023
The Central Bank of Nigeria has refuted claims made by certain Nigerians that the new naira notes are scarce.
At a news conference in Jos, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, refuted the claim in his capacity as Musa Jimoh, director of the bank’s Payment System Management Department.
”The CBN has massively supplied the new notes to commercial banks to dispense both at counters and ATMs.
”This is to enable the circulation and we want to advice commercial banks to desist from keeping the cash away from the public or face the stiffer sanction,” he said.
Insisting that the January 31 deadline remained intact, Mr. Emefiele urged citizens to deposit their old notes at any commercial bank and acquire new ones with immediate effect.
The CBN governor detailed the decision to redesign the currency and added that it should be done within five years to show that the cbn is following international standards.
He regretted, however, that it had taken Nigeria nine years to implement such improvements.
The CBN governor explained that the decision to revamp the nation’s higher denominations of money was a national effort intended to solve issues with cash circulation during a “monitoring and sensitization” exercise held in several areas in Jos.
He continued by saying that it would also address the issue of extended piggy bank savings, cash hoarding, and instances of phony currency.
“The Monitoring and Sensitisation project was activated by the apex bank for investigation of the attitude of banks toward the spread of the new currencies.
”We are equally using it to create awareness on the use of agents to circulate the cash in communities with few or no bank branches available,” he detailed.
He suggested that damaged currency be returned to banks for replacement, and he warned those who entertained the idea that the CBN would extend the deadline to stop thinking over it as they risked losing money.
