Naira redesign to promote financial inclusion, tackle banditry — CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Saturday the redesign of the naira notes was initiated to make Nigeria’s monetary policy decisions more effective, and promote financial inclusion.

The CBN’s Director of Communication, Osita Nwasinobi, who disclosed this at the 44th Kaduna international trade fair in Kaduna, said the policy would complement the efforts of security agents in their fights against bandits and other criminal elements in the northern part of the country.

Nwasinobi, who was represented at the fair by CBN’s Director of Capacity Development, Mohammed Abbah, advised Nigerians to make use of alternative payment channels such as eNaira and internet banking for their daily transactions.

He stressed that the policy was never intended to plunge Nigerians into hardship or targeted anyone.

The scarcity of the redesigned Naira notes had crippled activities in the country with Nigerians daily keeping vigil at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) posts to cash money for their daily usage.

Abbah said: “The principal aim of the bank, with the currency redesign initiative, is to make our monetary policy decisions more efficacious.

READ ALSO: CBN debunk claims, says Nigeria has capacity to print new naira notes

“Nigerians will observe that there has been a downward trend in inflation and the exchange rates have been relatively stable.

“Furthermore, we aim to increase financial inclusion in the country by reducing the number of the unbanked population.

“Thirdly, our aim is to support the efforts of our security agencies in combating banditry and ransom-taking in Nigeria through this programme.

“The CBN is not unmindful of the challenges some citizens have had to face in the past few weeks in efforts to get money from their banks or other alternative channels.

“Indeed, there have been reports of occasional transaction failures. However, we wish to assure you that the Nigerian payment system infrastructure is robust enough to handle the surging transaction volumes across all channels.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now