President Buhari unveils redesigned naira notes

The redesigned naira notes in the denominations of N200, N500, and N1,000 were unveiled by the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retired), on Wednesday morning.

Just prior to the start of this week's Federal Executive Council meeting, Buhari unveiled the notes at the State House's Council Chambers.

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, responded to queries from reporters after the event and claimed that nobody was the objective of the action.

The central bank would have sufficient control over the amount of money in circulation, he claimed, thanks to the newly designed notes.

“This move is to enable the Central Bank of Nigeria to have control over the size of money in circulation

“There is no need to think that the programme is targeted at anyone. During my speech at the unveiling, I said that plans for this started early in the year. We considered the pros and cons carefully.

“In the past, attempts to redesign and reissue currencies have been resisted. Only a President of Muhammadu Buhari’s character could have made it happen,” he said.

At the briefing, Emefiele noted that there would be a significant reduction in the amount of cash that could be taken out of the counter and that large withdrawals would involve a number of steps and security checks to monitor their use.

This, according to him, would guarantee a smooth transition to a cashless economy.

The CBN governor added that the apex bank would not extend the January 31, 2023 deadline, saying that Nigerians have plenty of time to return the outdated notes that are still in use.

According to him, “As of 2018, we had 86,000 touchpoints nationwide where Nigerians could deposit and withdraw money. In October 2022, that number has risen to 1.4 million touchpoints.

“That is to say we have over 1.4 million bank branches, POS points and other ancillary outfits to enable Nigerians return the old notes.”

Emefiele declared that, in accordance with the constitution, the apex bank will now revamp the currency every five to eight years.

Source