Reps charge CBN to enforce the use of coins

The House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to enforce the use of coins as legal tender and ensure that banks fully comply with the directive.

This followed the adoption of a motion moved by a member of the House, Muda Umar, at the plenary.

Umar, who led the debate on the matter, noted that on February 28, 2007, the CBN as part of the economic reforms initiated by its former Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, reissued N50, N20, N10 and N5 banknotes with new designs and introduced N2, N1 and 50 kobo coins.

He stressed that despite the huge sums spent by the Federal Government in the production of coins as legal tender, the lower denominations had since gone into extinction.

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Umar said: “The day to day business transactions of ordinary Nigerians have been significantly affected as the lack of coins and other lower denominations have resulted in prices being summed up to the nearest Naira equivalent, a situation that can best be described as inflation in economic terms.

“Worried that while other countries make use of coins for their daily financial transactions, the Nigerian coins comprising 50kobo, N1 and N2 have not been fully utilized in that regard.

“The House believes that injecting lower denominations and coins into the economy will go a long way in curbing price inflation and stabilizing the economy.”

The House adopted the motion and directed the Committee on Banking and Currency to ensure compliance.

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