Naira Scarcity: Banks Get New Notes On Daily Basis — CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it allocates new naira notes to banks every day.

CBN Director, Consumer Protection, Mrs Rashidat Monguno, made the disclosure in Offa, Kwara State, on Thursday.

She attributed scarcity of the redesigned notes to sabotage by some commercial banks.

Monguno, who was on an exercise to monitor microfinance banks, said, ”There is naira out there, I have been in Kwara for over three weeks now and we have been allocating money daily.

”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 issues from now till December, it will still not be enough.

”Because of this attitude, 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. When you issue out currency as CBN, what we expect is that the naira issued out will come back into the banking system again.

”And you know that in every economy, you must have 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.”

The CBN Director added that the situation could only get better when people start spending money already hoarded because enough money was already in circulation.

She added that the CBN was already engaging traditional rulers to sensitise their people to have a positive attitude and be confident that the naira redesign policy was not to punish anyone but to better the economy.