WE ARE GOING AHEAD WITH NAIRA REDESIGN – CBN RESPONDS TO FINANCE MINISTER

October 29, 2022October 29, 2022

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By Adeola Abdullah

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has restated its commitment towards redesigning of the Naira.

This was made known in a statement on Saturday, signed by the spokesman of the CBN, Osita Nwanisobi; in apparent response to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning‘s claim that she was not informed of the decision to redesign the naira notes.

Giving further reason why the decision was taken, the statement said: “Currency management in the country had faced several escalating challenges which threatened the integrity of the currency, the CBN, and the country”.

Finance Minister Zainab Ahmad on Friday disowned the policy, stating she was not aware and warning the CBN of its dire consequences.

But Nwanisobi reminded the Minister that “every top-rate Central Bank was committed to safeguarding the integrity of the local legal tender, the efficiency of its supply, as well as its efficacy in the conduct of monetary policy”.

On the timing of the redesign project, Nwanisobi explained that the CBN had “tarried for too long considering that it had to wait 20 years to carry out a redesign, whereas the standard practice globally was for central banks to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender every five to eight years”.