Over the years, the Nigerian legal tender has been redesigned four (4) times; the first time was in 1965 when Nigeria became a republic, and the main reason why it was redesigned was so that it could reflect that it was now being issued by the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Nigerian currency was redesigned yet again in 1968, following a civil war. Nigeria chose to modify the currency notes it printed in 1965 as a war tactic to counteract the misuse of the country’s currency notes during the period. Nigeria implemented a genuine monetary system in decimal form in 1973, replacing the imperial system inherited from the British colonial administration, which resulted in a currency redesign then, as part of the economic reforms implemented in 2007, new banknotes with new designs were reissued.
While there are multiple opinions about the redesigning of the naira notes, i am of the opinion that the redesigning will help curb the hoarding of currency by Nigerians- It is no news that corruption thrives in Nigeria, and many corrupt persons keep large sums of money in soak-aways or overhead tanks and even unoccupied houses, These monies have been alleged to be stolen public funds. Instances of such corrupt practices abound, and recent examples are the Ikoyi gate scenario, the Kaduna gate scenario, and the Benue example, where monies were stashed in bags discovered in their decomposed state. These instances and other reasons necessitated the need/urgency for the redesign of the Nigerian Legal Tender, which the federal government believes/expects to curb once and for all, instances of hoarding, insecurity, and the bastardization of the Nigerian currency. We all know this is a political strategy to keep us engrossed with the election coming up.
The Central Bank of Nigeria also instituted a withdrawal policy that restricted withdrawals from ATMs, point-of-sale devices, and over-the-counter locations to just N100,000 per week for individuals and N500,000 for corporate organizations, but it was increased to N500,000 for individuals and N5,000,000. The Central Bank of Nigeria ordered banks to stop handing out new, redesigned notes over the counter and to reload ATM machines instead to aid circulation at the beginning of this year. However, because there is an insufficient supply of new notes, banks are left with old notes that they must load into ATM machines. This is despite the announcement that all Nigerians should deposit old notes as they will no longer be accepted as legal tender as of January 31.
Even though organizations like the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) expressed concerns and appealed for the Central bank of Nigeria to extend the date and even the House of Representatives and the Senate urged CBN in separate statements to extend the date, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria, confirmed in a recent interview that the old currency notes will be phased out of circulation by the end of January. Everyone is still advised to obey the directives of the Central bank of Nigeria since their decision is final.
The best solution to this issue of new cash policy is that they should have printed enough of the new notes before announcing or giving the citizens deadline for spending the old notes that was in use. Another solution is Justice. The poor don’t know what naira redesign means. Some of them don’t have N10,000. They live from hand to mouth. But those who have millions; it’s their own cup of tea. Many of those poor have not laid their hands on the new notes. But those considered terrorists have them in bulk.
Therefore, efforts to make the issue of the new naira note in Nigeria can only be effective if there’s a solid source to produce more new notes and give the people limited time to make use of their chances to get themselves new notes.
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