The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may not shift its ground on extending the grace given to the public for the continued spending of the old N1000 and N500 notes as a legal tender in the country.
The bank is determined to replace all high-denomination cash bills in the economy with the aim of shifting Nigerians to use less cash.
It would be recalled that the apex bank had in October, last year hinted that it will significantly reduce the quantity of higher denomination notes (N500 and N1,000) it will print in future.
A CBN official who spoke to journalists recently revealed that the CBN is in a race with other central banks around the world to institutionalise Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
He revealed that the apex bank did not intend to give any relief to hoarders of N500 and N1,000 notes as these have ceased to be legal tender.
“An underlying reason for the demonetization agenda of the CBN is the desire to quickly move Nigeria from a predominantly cash based society to a cashless society”, he emphasized.
He also revealed that to meet the spending needs of the people therefore, the apex bank has concluded out a plan to make N200 notes accessible to all by flooding the system with this denomination.
According to the plan marshalled out by CBN, aside from meeting with bank chiefs to release the old and new N200 notes in their vaults, the CBN will, on its part, push out the old N200 notes that were initially deposited as banknotes to be phased out.
A very senior member of the bank said that “by today, there should be enough of the old N200 notes combined with the new ones to flood the banking system with enough cash to meet the genuine cash needs of normal people and small enterprises”.
The official noted: “More cash will get into circulation to stimulate demand for goods and services which had experienced a lull because of shortage of cash.”
When asked how much of the N200 denomination has so far been printed by the CBN to meet this demand, the CBN official said he does “not have information on the quantum of new N200 notes printed. One thing I am sure of is that the CBN will put into circulation the quantum of new naira notes it judges to be optimal”.
Last week, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele had suggested that about N700 billion is the optimal quantity of cash the economy requires.
According to the official, “with the old N200 notes being put back into circulation plus the new notes, Nigerians will experience substantial relief in the next few days, especially if the commercial banks do not sabotage the directives”.
However, following the lack of interest shown by Nigerians to adopt the eNaira digital currency of the Central Bank, the apex bank has mandated all staff of the bank to open an eNaira wallet.
The Nation gathered from a staff of the CBN that the allowances of staff will be paid into the wallet to fund their eNaira account, while basic salaries will go into their regular accounts.
Since October 2021 when the eNaira was launched, less than 99.5 percent of Nigerians have refused to use the CBN’s digital currency, the eNaira, preferring instead to use cash that they are used to.
The CBN staff who spoke to The Nation said the Central Bank in mandating its staff to operate the eNaira account was copying commercial banks when they introduce new products.
According to the staff, “when a new product is introduced in the bank, the bank’s staff are asked to use the product so that they can be able to sell the product properly”.
Source: The Nation
