The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed, contrary to rumours of printing other Naira denominations apart from the redesigned N1000, N500 and N200, that no other denominations would be printed.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Director of Currency Operations at CBN, Ahmed Umar made the disclosure in Port Harcourt, Rivers State at a workshop for business editors and members of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) on Tuesday.
Recall videos of some bundles of new N5,000 notes with the name of the Central Bank of Nigeria clearly printed on them, circulated on WhatsApp immediately after the apex bank announced plans to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes in October.
Umar, represented by Amina Halidu-Giwa, the Head, Policy Development Division, Currency Operation Department of the apex bank, stressed the CBN has no plan to introduce N5,000 denominated banknote as being speculated.
Umar who spoke on the topic, “Redesign of the Naira: Benefits to the financial system and the Nigerian economy”, said the apex bank was not carrying out note restructuring.
“We are not introducing any new note because there was noise, some people have seen one N5000 note that we don’t know about,” he said.
He explained that if the apex bank wanted to carry out note restructuring, it would need to coin the lower bills, like the N100 note for example.
He also said that the apex bank had not made any provision for exchange in the redesigned note, adding that what it was printing would only replace the currencies withdrawn.
“What we are printing is going to be very limited because we want other means of settling transactions to be used.
“Because Nigerians and cash, there seems to be a problem. And it will give us enhanced visibility and control of the currency. We will also be able to control the number of banknotes outside ,” he said.
Umar also disclosed that the CBN was not making money from the printing of the new notes contrary to insinuations.
He said that it was just a continuous process of printing money by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc, adding that no contract was given to outsiders for the printing.
Fielding questions on why the redesign was so simple, he said ”we want to solve a problem and we have limited time to do that.
”Redesigning is about a change of colour or size. The ink itself is a security feature,” he said.
Umar said that the redesign of the notes was long overdue noting that the N1000 notes had stayed for 17 years, N500 for 21 years and N200 for 22 years.
He said the naira redesign will encourage expanded financial inclusion and other forms of electronic transactions.
According to him, it will discourage the excessive carrying of cash and encourage other electronic means of transactions.
He said that when the un-banked were fully captured in the financial system, it would help form adequate data for effective planning for greater economic growth.
”Naira redesign will also help in reducing cash management expenditures, give visibility and control and will help the bank to know the volume of money in circulation.
”It will also help in fighting counterfeiting and money laundering,” he said.