By John Omachonu
The Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) Aisha Ahmad almost caused a stir at the recent House of Representatives plenary session as she could not give the immediate figure of new redesigned notes printed and released for circulation in the economy.
Ahmad, who represented Godwin Emefiele, while responding to questions from members of the House said she could not ascertain the exact amount and the number of notes printed, adding that she did not want to give a wrong figure.
She actually told her anxious audience that CBN ordered 500 million notes of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations through the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc.
According to punchng.com, the chamber became rowdy last Thursday as the members were miffed by her statement. But, when the question was put to her again, she later said 500 million notes were ordered.
Aisha defended the policy saying 94 percent of cash withdrawals through personal accounts were less than the revised N500,000 per week, while 82 percent of those via corporate accounts were less than N5 million.
But, since it went into circulation on December 15, there have been complaints of insufficient quantities available at deposit money banks.
The new worrisome dimension is the spotting of counterfeit notes by traders, a development that has increased apathy of traders to the new notes.
However, less than two weeks after the introduction, some traders have started rejecting the notes on the grounds that counterfeits have infiltrated into the economy.
Traders and business owners are still attached to the old notes, more so that the new notes are still very scarce and not yet fully in circulation.
As part of the measures to hedge against unnecessary losses from the development, most entrepreneurs, hoteliers and business owners according to metrobusinessnews.com investigations, have resorted to acquiring scanner machines, a development that would add to cost of doing business and possibly lead to additional prices to be paid by the final consumers.
CBN had said the newly redesigned notes would help to address hoarding, reign in inflation and most importantly, checkmate counterfeiting. However, the last objective is already proving difficult to achieve.
Interestingly, CBN had taken some pre-emptive measures by trying to ally fears of the market women and business owners through the release last Tuesday of security features that Nigerians can use to identify the original notes.
However, paying attention to those details may not work for market women most of whom transact their businesses in haste.
Emefiele had on Oct. 26 announced plans to redesign the denominated notes, saying the old notes would cease to be legal tender by Jan. 31, 2022. He said the reason for the currency redesign was to stop counterfeiting and hoarding.
