BY Busola Aro
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says its decision to redesign some naira notes followed the law and due process.
Osita Nwanisobi, CBN spokesperson, said this in a statement on Saturday.
Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, had said the ministry was not consulted before the CBN decided to redesign the naira notes.
But in the statement, Nwanisobi said the redesigning of the currency notes “followed the law and due process to carry out the exercise, which is 12 years due”.
He added that the decision to redesign the notes was due to several challenges which threatened the currency, adding that the bank’s top priority is to “safeguard the integrity of the local legal tender”.
“The CBN remains a very thorough institution that follows due process in its policy actions. The management of the CBN, in line with provisions of section 2(b), section 18(a), and section 19(a)(b) of the CBN act 2007, had duly sought and obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari in writing to redesign, produce, release and circulate new series of N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes,” he said.
“Currency management in the country had faced several escalating challenges which threatened the integrity of the currency, the CBN, and the country.
“Every top-rate central bank was committed to safeguarding the integrity of the local legal tender, the efficiency of its supply, as well as its efficacy in the conduct of monetary policy.
“Tarried for too long considering that it had to wait 20 years to carry out a redesign, whereas the standard practice globally was for central banks to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender every five to eight years.”
Nwanisobi, said “some persons were hoarding significant sums of banknotes outside the vaults of commercial banks, [and] this trend should not be encouraged by anyone who means well for the country”.
He added that the currency redesign exercise was purely a central banking exercise and not targeted at any group.
The CBN spokesperson also said the effort will, among other goals, deepen Nigeria’s push to entrench a cashless economy in the face of increased minting of the eNaira.
This, he said, is in addition to helping to curb the incidents of terrorism and kidnapping due to access of persons to the large volume of money outside the banking system used as a source of funds for ransom payments.
Nwanisobi also urged all Nigerians to support the currency redesign project, adding that “it was in the overall interest of Nigerians and the economy”.
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