The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed it spent N58.61 billion printing Naira notes for circulation in the country.
This was disclosed in the recently released Annual Report 2020, compiled by the CBN’s Currency Operations Department.
According to CBN 2,51 billion pieces of banknotes of various denominations was printed to satisfy the currency needs of the economy. The amount spent in 2020 for printing is a significant drop when compared with what CBN spent in 2019 and 2018.
The apex bank said it disposed of 1.51 billion pieces of banknotes worth N698.48 billion in 2020.
In Nigeria, the CBN destroys unfit banknotes on a regular basis under strict security and with the authorization of Section 18(d) of the CBN Act 2007, which mandates the destruction of currency notes and coins withdrawn from circulation under the provisions of Section 20(3) of the said Act or otherwise deemed unfit for use by the Bank.
According to the CBN report, the bank sustained banknotes disposal operations in 2020 to ensure the circulation of clean ones.
The bank said; “At the end of December 2020, a total of 1.51 billion pieces (151,427 boxes) worth N698,593.29 million were disposed of, compared to 1.57 billion pieces (157,217 boxes) worth N814,437.60 million in 2019.
“The number of boxes and the value of inappropriate notes disposed of in 2020 fell by 5,790 boxes and N1,115.84 million, respectively, from 157,217 boxes and N814,437.10 million in 2019. The drop was ascribed to a halt in disposal activities owing to COVID19 regulations.”
In furtherance of this objective, CBN revealed it deployed eleven (11) Banknote Destruction Systems (BDS) and three (3) Currency Disintegrating Systems (CDS) for currency disposal activities in the period under review.
The CBN also stated that the sum of N538.59 million was incurred on currency disposal activities in 2020, compared with N647.82 million in 2019. This was N109.23 million or 16.86 percent lower than the cost in 2019.
Recall that the CBN, Wednesday, announced plans to redesign and reissue the N1000, N500 and N200 currency denominations, in an effort to rein in inflation and take control of money supply in the country.
CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, who’d made this known also said the current naira notes will no longer be legal tender from January 31, 2023.
However, analysts have worried that this move is bound to put more pressure on the nation’s economy which is grappling with high fiscal deficit, debt crisis, severe revenue crisis and underfunding of many government projects and programmes.
