CBN to monitor redesigned Naira compliance by commercial banks

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will monitor commercial banks to ensure that they comply with the directive of loading the redesigned Naira notes in their
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

CBN Director, Currency Operations, Mr Ahmed Umar, made this known in Abuja on Monday at the Training Session for State Directors, National Orientation Agency (NOA) on Redesign of Currency Notes Policy.

Umar said that the CBN’s directive was to implement the Jan. 31 deadline withdrawal of old naira notes in circulation.

We want to use this training session to pass the message that CBN has enough currency notes to go around to the general public.

“We, CBN management, have mandated banks to stop putting old notes in their ATM machines. They should only put the new notes.

“And there is the serialisation of the policy that they can put either N500, N1000 or N200 note whichever the denomination they have or combination of any of those notes, they should just put a new note in their machines.

“We are going to monitor to ensure that the banks comply and if they don’t, we have a penalty for non-compliance,” Apex bank director said.

According to him, in many countries of the world, it takes a few years to change a currency note design.

“In our own case what we had was basically over 20 years of having the same design of the note.

“Over that period, what it did to us was to create an avenue for some people to master the act of counterfeiting the note.”

“In our own case, what we have is a minimum of 17 years or more for us to redesign our currency.

“If you notice the N1000 note that was introduced in 2005, it took 17 years for us to redesign it. N500 and N200 notes were also redesigned after 21 years and 22 years respectively.

“So, if currency notes stay too long in the system, there is a tendency that people who counterfeit to make a lot of efforts to produce the same notes.

“So, that is why there is a need to change our notes regularly.”

According to him, another reason is that N500 and N1000 constitute 99 per cent of the currency notes that are being targeted for counterfeiting.