The new Naira notes
‘Hoarders responsible for scarcity of new Naira notes,’ says CBN
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says hoarding of the newly-redesigned Naira notes by some persons and organisations is responsible for its scarcity, as it also ruled out the question of inadequate printing and issuing out of the currencies by the regulatory bank.
CBN Director of Consumer Protection, Mrs Rashidat Mongunu, who disclosed this, Thursday, while monitoring microfinance banks in Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, said the redesigned notes were already made available by the CBN, but it was those hoarding it that made it scarce and people now throng banks to collect money almost at the same time.
”Because of the attitude of some Nigerians in hoarding the money, even those that don’t really need the money are rushing to get it and keep, not to spend.
”Currency management is a cycle but we have not allowed the cycle to mature, because when you issue out currency as CBN, what we expect is that the Naira issued out will come back into the banking system again.
”But now, everybody collecting the Naira is hoarding it. So, no matter how much Naira we put out there, if we continue with this attitude and the CBN issue from now till December, it will still not be enough. And you know that in every economy, you must have a proper accountability on the indent.
”You just don’t issue out Naira for the fun of it, you issue the amount that is commensurate with the level of activity you have in that country,” Mongunu said.
The CBN director explained that the situation could only get better when people started spending money already hoarded because enough money was already in circulation.
”There is Naira out there. I have been in Kwara for over three weeks and we have been allocating money daily.
”The truth is that if the currency is circulating the way it should and not being hoarded, we shouldn’t have a problem.
”The only thing is for us to change our attitude because it can only get better when people start spending the money they have hoarded,” Mongunu stressed.
