Since President Muhammadu Buhari ascension to power, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has destroyed about N6 trillion worth of mutilated and old banknotes.
Already, data obtained from the annual reports of the currency operations department of the apex bank between 2016 and 2020 showed that the central bank destroyed mutilated banknotes worth N4.1 trillion during the five-year period. But reports state that by the time Buhari would be ending his second term tenure in May 2023, the figure would have risen above N6 trillion.
A breakdown of the CBN data for the 2016-2020 period showed that six years ago, the apex bank destroyed the sum of N829.94 billion in mutilated notes. In 2017, the sum of N977.23 billion in mutilated banknotes was again destroyed by the CBN. The years 2018, 2019, and 2020 saw the destruction of N814.59 billion, N814.44 billion, and N698.59 billion banknotes.
It was as well revealed that N3.88 billion was spent to destroy the N4.1 trillion mutilated banknotes disposed of between 2016 and 2020.
According to the report, the financial regulator is expected to destroy over 80% of the N3.23 trillion banknotes currently in circulation as a result of its decision to redesign N100, N200, N500, and N1,000 bills.
Meanwhile, Buhari had thrown his weight behind Governor Godwin Emefiele of the central bank, shunning Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, as new naira notes would soon be launched.
It would be recalled that while Emefiele defended the CBN’s move to redesign N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, Ahmed expressed an opinion that the decision was not economy-smart, adding that she was not informed about the development until she read it in the news.
Shunning Ahmed, Buhari said Nigeria has a lot to gain from the change in naira notes. He added that he did not consider the period of three months for the change to the new notes as being short.
”People with illicit money buried under the soil will have a challenge with this but workers, businesses with legitimate incomes will face no difficulties at all,” the President added.
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