CBN To Introduce New Naira Notes By September, To Reprint N5, N10, N20 And N50 On Paper

Deputy Director, Operations of The Central Bank of
Nigeria, Dr Tunde Lemo, has said the bank will take
delivery of new Naira notes before the end of
September for circulation.
The News Agency Of Nigeria reports that The apex
bank had earlier said that new Naira notes would be
in circulation by June, and that the smaller
denomination notes (N5, N10, N20, and N50) would
be reprinted on paper.

“We are going to take delivery of the new notes from
this month of August. We will take delivery of the
new notes before the end of September.
“The public will get a large quantity of the new notes
to replace the old and mutilated notes, particularly
the higher denomination notes in the first instance,
then later the lower denominations,’’ he said.
On the scarcity of the lower denomination notes,
Lemo blamed commercial banks for what he called
“poor circulation’’.
“For the lower denomination; well, I think the banks
are really the ones that are really not allowing the
lower denomination in circulation, largely, because of
the carrying value.
“Most people don’t require small denomination. But
for buying things in the market, if you look at the
veracity, you find out that the N50 circulate more
than the smaller ones,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Lemo has urged law enforcement
agencies to arrest all illegal hawkers of new Naira
notes.
He also called on commercial banks to keep watchful
eyes on their staff to avoid being used as conduit for
illegal transfer of new notes to unauthorised hands.
Lemo said this should be done to ensure effective
protection of the currency from abuse.
“We have done all we can do in the sense that we
have criminalised this in the 2007 Act. It is clear that
if you hawk notes, if you abuse the currency, it is a
criminal offence and it is punishable.
“We expect law enforcement agencies to do the
arrest. We don’t have power to arrest. We know it is
going on,’’ he said. Lemo said commercial banks
should “dispense and pay their customers with new
notes’’.
He said the apex bank had carried out sensitisation
campaigns to inform the public and warn them about
the dangers of patronising hawkers. “I think that is
the limit the central bank can go,’’ the deputy
governor said.
Naira notes are sold at Dei Dei along Kubwa Express
Road, Abuja, as well as other locations across the
country.