President Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled the re-designed Naira notes today, Wednesday November 23, 2022.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele had on Tuesday said the president will unveil the newly designed N1,000, N500 and N200 notes.
The unveiling today, marks the first time in 19 years, Nigeria will be redesigning it’s currency notes.
At a briefing after the ceremony before the Federal executive council meeting, the CBN governor debunked insinuations that the early unveiling of new notes is a means to target any Nigerian.
Mr Emefiele appealed to members of the public that there is no need to perpetuate any such information.
According to him, the CBN will intensify the monitoring process and interrogate the process of withdrawals.
He maintained that there will be heavy restriction on the volume of cash that people can withdraw over the counter, as it works with the EFCC to monitor the purpose of any heavy transactions.
The redesigned currency note he asserts can never be counterfeited, adding that to forestall such occurrence he states that the CBN redesign the notes after every five to eight years.
Following the unveiling of the new note which begins circulation today, the CBN governor announced that the CBN is now more determined to make Nigeria a cashless economy, as in other climes.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while briefing, warned Nigerians against holding of the old notes, saying there was no going back on the January 31, 2023 deadline to completely render the old notes useless.
He said redesigning the banknotes was based on the fact that currency management had faced several daunting challenges that had continued to grow in scale and sophistication with attendant and unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.
(L-R) The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, unveiling the new naira notes to Nigerians.
He added that previous efforts by the CBN to redesign and re-issue new naira notes had been resisted by the political class in the country.
He explained that more than N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation was outside the banking sector which, he said, was “unacceptable.”
He said with the new development, the CBN aimed to take control of money supply by mopping up all cash from the economy, both within the vaults of banks and in the hands of citizens.
This is the first time in almost 20 years that Nigeria will redesign its naira notes.
