The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has disclosed its plan to redesign naira notes.
In a statement obtained by BizWatch Nigeria on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, CBN said new naira notes would be launched on Thursday, December 15, adding that only N1,000, N500 and N200 notes would be redesigned.
Highlighting why it is making the move to change the notes, the apex bank explained that “hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 80 percent of currency in circulation are outside the vaults of commercial banks; Worsening shortage of clean and fit banknotes with the attendant negative perception of the CBN and increased risk to financial stability, and Increasing ease and risk of counterfeiting evidenced by several security reports.”
According to the central bank, even though global best practise requires it to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender every 5–8 years, naira has not been redesigned in the last 20 years.
The financial regulator also noted that it has recorded significantly higher rates of counterfeiting, especially at the higher denominations of N500 and N1,000 banknotes.
While the new and existing currencies would remain legal tender and circulate together until Tuesday, January 31, 2023, when the existing currencies would seize to be legal tender, CBN directed all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country currently holding the existing denominations of the currency to begin returning the notes effective immediately.
CBN said the newly designed currency will be released to the banks in order of First-come-First-serve basis.
