Report: CBN To Release Another N500bn New Naira Notes for Circulation, Officials Reveal Reasons for Scarcity
- The Central Bank of Nigeria is preparing to make another N500bn new naira notes available to banks and, more crucially, Nigerians
- Due to the lack of new naira notes, Nigerians and PoS operators have been constrained to continue trading with the old currency
- The CBN's deadline for the old naira notes was Friday, February 10, 2023, but it appears Nigerians are no longer concerned
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is expected to pump in more new naira notes into circulation through the banks.
According to the Nation, already about N500 billion of the new notes have been injected into circulation since December 15, 2022, when the naira redesigned policy officially kicked off.
It is expected that the apex plan to pump more cash, pushing the number of new naira notes in circulation closer to N1 trillion.
Source: Facebook
Legit.ng had earlier reported that the CBN releases about N30m new naira notes to banks daily.
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CBN plans for this week
A board member of CBN was quoted as saying:
“The CBN will do the needful to ensure that innocent Nigerians’ pains are eliminated. To this end, more new naira notes will be allocated to the banks from Monday for disbursing to the public.”
"The CBN is being careful not to flood the system with naira notes thus creating another currency control problems for it with attendant inflationary pressures”.
Powerful Nigerians hoard new naira notes
Another senior CBN management official was quoted as saying that the new new naira notes is in the hands of some powerful Nigerians.
The official who was not named said:
“The CBN has discovered that some powerful individuals used their cronies to open new bank accounts in order to withdraw new notes.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will soon go after them to see if they followed the Know Your Customer (KYC) protocol.”
He added that most commercial banks were deliberately keeping the new notes for their priority customers.
He said:
“The banks are loyal to their priority customers; that’s why they reserve some new notes for them. They do not want to lose their high net worth customers. The apex bank has increased the volume of cash it released to the banks.”
It was also discovered that citizens were holding on to the new notes.
“People, are not depositing new notes but holding on to them,”
USSD code to block bank account when ATM card, or phone is stolen
Meanwhile, with the CBN forging ahead with its plan to ensure that Nigeria becomes a cashless society, it is important customers are security conscious.
Nigerians will have to open a bank account and also get an ATM card or use their phones for transactions.
As more Nigerians become banked, it is expected that electronic fraud will increase, Legit.ng has provided a list of USSD codes to quick block accounts.
Source: Legit.ng
