CBN says new Naira notes issuance ongoing
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says that the issuance of new banknotes into the economy is ongoing while it is mopping up the old naira notes, also still in circulation. The currency notes to be phased out are the N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations
Folashodun Shonubi, the acting governor of the Bank, stated this at a briefing by the Monetary Policy Committee –the CBN arm charged with formulating monetary policies guidelines.
He said, “When a currency is printed and sent out, it is expected to go through a number of cycles and be replaced over time. That’s what we’re doing. We are slowly and over time replacing the old notes with new ones.”
Shonubi had stepped in after President Bola Tinubu suspended the substantive governor of the government’s lender, Godwin Emefiele. Emefiele introduced the controversial banknotes change while Nigeria was preparing to hold its general elections last year.
Some members of the political class, especially from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), believed Emefiele launched the policy deliberately to hurt the chances of then ruling party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu.
At the time, former Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai–an influential member of the ruling class–opined the banknote change was rather a naira confiscation policy, in the sense that the CBN, after urging depositors to lodge their money in the banks, decided to place a ceiling on allowable withdrawals.
A situation that created hardship for citizens and collapse of several businesses, particularly, start-ups and small-scale enterprise. The system seems to be taking its revenge on the suspended CBN governor as he faces prosecution for illegal possession of firearms.
