Banknotes: N56.83m worth of counterfeits discovered in 2020 – CBN report, as Nigeria spends N58.6bn to print N2.52bn

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that N56.83 million worth of counterfeit currency notes were discovered to be in circulation in the country last year.

CBN, in its recently-released Annual Currency Operations report for 2020, said the discovery was made by the bank in collaboration with security agencies in the country.

According to the government regulatory bank, counterfeit currency is an imitation of currency produced without legal sanction from the state or government. Producing or spending counterfeit currency is a form of fraud or forgery.

“To maintain the integrity of the banknotes in circulation, the Bank, in collaboration with Security Agencies, sustained efforts at combating counterfeiting activities in 2020. A total of 67,265 pieces of counterfeit notes with a nominal value of N56.83 million was recorded in 2020. This was 20.80 per cent in volume and 12.18 per cent value, lower than 84,934 pieces and N64.71 million in 2019.

“The N1000 and N500 denominations constituted the bulk of counterfeited banknotes, accounting for 69.06 per cent and 30.79 per cent, respectively, of the total counterfeit notes. 

“The data on counterfeit notes in 2020 were mainly from four (4) sources, namely: Security Agencies, DMBs, CBN’s 24 processing centres and BWH Plc. The ratio of counterfeit notes to the volume of banknotes in circulation was 13 pieces per million, compared to 20 pieces per million banknotes in 2019,” read the report.

According to the CBN, the highest denominations of the Naira were the most preferred by the counterfeiters.

Similarly, the CBN also said it spent N58.6 billion to print N2.52 billion currency notes valued at N1.1 trillion in 2020, indicating a significant decrease Year-on-Year as it spent N75.5 billion and N64.04 billion in 2019 and 2018 respectively for the same purpose.

This was disclosed in its Annual Currency Operations report for 2020 where the regulatory bank also said it utilized $1.83 billion within the same year to fund Bureaux De Changes (BDCs) and Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) operations.

The report indicated that CBN, “approved an indent of 2,518.68 million pieces of banknotes of various denominations in 2020 to satisfy the currency needs of the economy, compared with 3,830.94 million in the preceding year.”

According to the report, “the total cost incurred on printing of banknotes in 2020 amounted to N58,618.50 million, compared with N75,523.50 million in 2019, indicating a decrease of ¦ 16,905.00 million or 28.84 per cent.”

CBN indicated in the report that the notes were printed in-country by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc.

“The NSPM Plc was awarded the contract for the production of the entire indent. It put the total stock of currency (issuable & non-issuable) in the vaults of the bank at end December, 2020 at 2.747 billion pieces, compared with 2.641 billion pieces in 2019, indicating an increase of 105.73 million pieces or 4.00 per cent.”

The report also indicated that a total of $1.830 billion was procured over the course of 2020.

According to the report, “This value represents a decrease of USD2,120.00 million or 53.67 per cent relative to the USD3,950.00 million procured in 2019.

In 2020, a total of 173,585 boxes of banknotes valued at N980. 758 billion was processed, compared with 260,651 boxes of banknotes valued at N1. 533 trillion in 2019.

This represents a decrease of 33.40 per cent in the number of boxes or N552. 971 billion in value of processed banknotes.