Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has unveiled the rebranded naira notes as promised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Despite expectations of total rebounding of the notes, only N1000, N500 and N200 denominations were affected by the rebounding policy.
Unveiling of the denominations, which held at the Council Chambers of the State House in Abuja, however, preceded the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by the President.
Speaking at the event, President Buhari said the Naira rebranding will help Nigeria address the issue of illicit financial flows and corruption and improve the economy. Buhari noted that the naira redesign will also help the CBN’s Monetary policy initiative.
According to the President, the Nigeria Printing and Minting Company printed the first set of redesigned Naira notes locally. He appealed to Nigerians to embrace the new policy.
Earlier in his remark, Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emiefele, said redesigning the banknotes was based on the fact that currency management has faced several daunting challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with attendant and unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.
He said previous efforts by the CBN to redesign and re-issue new naira notes were resisted by politicians. The CBN governor also explained that more than N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation is outside the banking sector which he says is unacceptable.
The CBN Governor noted that, With the new development, the central bank aims to take control of money supply by mopping up all cash from the economy, both within the vaults of banks and in the hands of citizens.
