Naira Scarcity: CBN Top Officials to Meet on Monday

Membersof the management team of the Central Bank of Nigeria are to meet on Monday to review the crisis that the naira redesign policy has generated to come up with solutions to the cash scarcity that has hit the country.

The meeting would also consider the advice given by the National Council of State that the apex bank should print more redesigned N1,000, N500 and N200 notes or re-circulate the old ones withdrawn from circulation in order to ease the current cash crunch.

The meeting, which will hold at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, would involve the top echelon of the apex bank, and a fresh directive might be issued to Deposit Money Banks on whether to keep accepting deposits of the old notes or not.

Accordingto reports, the CBN was considering contracting other firms to print the redesigned naira notes, but it refuted the claims saying it was capable of printing the new Naira notes.

In a statement issued on Saturday, CBN spokesman, Osita Nwasinobi, said at no time did the CBN governor make such statement during his presentation to the National Council of State at its meeting on Friday, February 10, 2023.

So far, the Nigerian Printing and Minting Agency is reported to have printed 500 billion Naira worth of the new N1,000, N500 and N200 notes, while the CBN had withdrawn about N2.1trn of the old notes from circulation.

Pumch/Hauwa Abu