CBN dumps circulation of new lower denomination notes as mutilation deepens
During the midweek of last two months, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had responded to remarks by House of Representatives, who decried at plenary that lower denomination notes of Naira are becoming very dirty and can cause shocks in business transactions within the informal sector of the economy.
Key resolution in the response of the apex bank was the circulation of new lower naira notes. The scheme started in Abuja the same week and only lasted for two day in Abuja with the assurance that other parts of the country will be visited by the CBN.
More than two months after, the circulation of lower naira notes by the CBN may have been dumped as nothing was heard on the scheme again till today.
Efforts to get details from the CBN on why the circulation of new lower naira notes especially N200, N100, and N50 ended abruptly failed on Wednesday, but a competent source averred that CBn may have jettisoned the project due to logistics issues and as part of means to further control inflation while transactions within the informal sector suffer.
Contrary to the claims of the CBN Governor in Washington DC recently that the bank is working with market associations and other stakeholders to enhance the circulation of new naira notes, some Lagos, Kano and Enugu market leaders who spoke to Business Hilights denied any form of discussion or meeting with the apex bank on the matter.
According to them, the issue has become a big challenge in conducting smaller transactions in the markets and even on the roads.
However, an official of one of the leading commercial bank who pleaded anonymity however, agreed that there are indications that the CBN had reduced the amount of money it charges banks for sorting mutilated naira notes from clean ones to N1,000 per box from N12,000 per box. The reduction was however, limited to lower denomination naira notes, or polymer notes, namely N50, N20 and N10 notes.
The CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele had told journalists in US that he has assured Nigerians that the central bank would continue to print new notes as well as address concerns about defacing of the nation’s currency even as the problem continue to deepen without any clear sign of relief especially in Lagos, the nation’s economic hub.
Emefiele noted in the US that “We would keep printing new notes. I do know that new notes are being printed.
”Our Director of Currency, the banks and market associations are working together to ensure that those currencies are delivered directly into the markets so that people feel what we are doing,” he added.
