The National Council of State (NCS) has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to produce additional new Naira notes or reissue old Naira notes in order to lessen the hardship on Nigerians, which was the much-anticipated decision on the redesign of the Naira.
This decision further verifies a Quest Times story titled “CBN, MINT Co. has no capacity to print enough currency notes needed in Naira redesign” published on January 25, 2023.
According to Quest Times’ investigation, the CBN, through one of its organs, the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPMC) or MINT, does not have the capacity to “meet up with the replacement of the amounts of Naira notes in circulation, is way below the mark….”
According to the Quest Times’ story, “it has been determined that the amount of Naira notes that need to be picked up and replaced runs into billions, whereas the MINT can only print a few hundred billion in a year.”
According to our reliable sources [as reported in the story], the MINT’s capacity “to print new Naira notes is less than one trillion Naira but the amount of Naira notes to be replaced is much more than that. This is the challenge.”
The decision of the Council of State [as made on Friday, February 10] strongly agrees with our reliable sources in the report.
Abubakar Malami (SAN), a key member of the Council of State and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), announced the choice as follows: “there is need for aggressive action on the part of the Central Bank, as it relates to the implementation of the policy by way of ensuring adequate provision being made with regard to the supply of the Naira in the system.”
This is not the first time the story has been confirmed. On January 29, 2023, the CBN issued a 10-day extension of the first deadline [of January 31st] for exchanging old Naira notes for new ones. It was eventually confirmed that the apex bank was unable to issue enough new notes to meet demand before the deadline, which formed the basis of the story earlier published by QUEST TIMES.
The Council of State’s directive has once again demonstrated the CBN’s inability to issue the new notes needed to satisfy Nigerians’ expectations, leading to the body’s most recent direction to the apex bank.
You can read our exclusive story here.