Friday, 3 February 2023

NAIRA REDESIGN AND CURRENCY SWAP: THE VOICES OF REALITY COMING FROM THE FIELD



Recently, October 26, 2022 to be prĂ©cised the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Godwin Emefiele, announced that new Naira notes will be introduced to replace old Naira denominations of  N200, N500 and N1000. Following this development, the President of Nigeria Mohammadu Buhari, on November, 23, 2022, launched the new Naira notes of  N200, N500 and N1000. 

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the currency redesign exercise was done to address the issues and challenges associated with individuals who have made currency fraud their major means of income and source of livelihood. The activities of those nefarious individuals and groups include but not limited to hoarding of the currencies, leading to shortage of clean and fit banknotes and increase in the rate of counterfeiting in the country. Thus the benefits of the new Naira redesign, going by the promises of the CBN, include checking the rate of counterfeiting, strengthening the economy, reducing the expenditure on management, promotion of financial inclusion and enhancement of the CBN’s visibility of the money supply.

The policy which is now at the stage where citizens are expected to swap their old Naira notes of  N200, N500 and N1000 with the new currency is witnessing some hiccups. While the citizens, the government and CBN, await the promises and expectations from the policy to materialize, we hear some voices from the field that capture the real situation that confronts the people. Please click the link below and listen to our radio session to hear the voice of some of the MSMEs our reporters spoke to:

This is the link to click https://scoremedia22.mixlr.com/recordings/2014402

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Report by Nnabugwu Chizoba 

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