Fakoyejo OlalekanThe governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has revealed that new naira notes – N200, N500, and N1,000 – will be released on December 15, 2022.
Emefiele said the new design will curb ramson payment to terrorists and kidnappers, as well as enable the central bank take control of the naira in circulation.
According to the central bank governor, 85 per cent of available naira notes are outside the commercial banks, indicating Nigerians are hoarding the naira from the financial system.
Prime Business Africa learnt during a special press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday that only N600 billion is in the vault of commercial banks, out of the N3.3 trillion currency in circulation.
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This means over N2.7 trillion is outside the financial system of Nigeria. This comes at a time currency in circulation has risen from N1.46 trillion as at December 2015 to N3.2 trillion as of last month.
He advised Nigerians to deposit their naira notes to commercial banks, offering to waive deposit fee for transactions below N150,000, as hoarding can’t be allowed to continue.
“To be more specific, as at the end of September 2022, available data at the CBN indicates that N2.7 trillion out of the N3.3 trillion currency in circulation was outside the vault of commercial banks across the country and supposedly held by members of the public.” He said at the briefing.
The central bank governor added, “Evidently, currency in circulation has more than doubled since 2015, rising from N1.46 trillion in December 2015 to N3.2 trillion as at September 2022. I must say that this is a worrisome trend that must not be continued to be allowed.”
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