The CBN’s Director of Currency Operations, Ahmed Umar, said this at a three-day workshop organised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
The Central Bank of Nigeria has responded to talks about the new naira notes being only redesigned in colour, stating that the change of ink “is in itself a security feature.”
The CBN authorities also claimed that the bank had no luxury of time to execute a broad redesign, while claiming that it only wanted to tackle an identified problem.
The CBN’s Director of Currency Operations, Ahmed Umar, said this at a three-day workshop organised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
Umar, who was represented by the Head of Policy Development Division, Currency Operations Department of the bank, Amina Halidu-Giwa, also said that the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes appeared “simple” because the bank had limited time to redesign them.
Umar said, “We want to solve a problem and we have limited time to do that. Redesigning is about change of colour or size. The ink itself is a security feature.”
The Director also said that the bank had no plan to introduce N5,000 notes as speculated.
“We are not introducing any new note because there was noise, some people have seen one N5000 note that we don’t know about,” Umar’s representative, Halidu-Giwa said.
The workshop opened on Monday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital with a theme, “Building Depositors Confidence Amidst Emerging Issues and Challenges in the Banking Industry.”
Speaking on the topic, “Redesign of the Naira: Benefits to the financial system and the Nigerian economy”, Halidu-Giwa said CBN was not carrying out note restructuring, saying that if CBN wanted to carry out note restructuring, it would need to coin the lower denominations of the currency such as the N100 note.
Halidu-Giwa further explained that the apex bank had not made any provision for exchange in the redesigned note, noting that what the bank was printing would only replace the currencies withdrawn.
She said, “What we are printing is going to be very limited because we want other means of settling transactions to be used.
“Because Nigerians and cash, there seems to be a problem. And it will give us enhanced visibility and control of the currency.
“We will also be able to control the number of banknotes outside.”
She said that the redesign would encourage expanded financial inclusion and other forms of electronic transactions, adding that it will discourage excessive carrying of cash and encourage other electronic means of transactions.