CBN redesign of The Naira Promises To Curb inflation, Counterfeiting, Kidnapping, and Money Laundering

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele announced on Wednesday 26^th October 2022 of an ongoing redesign of the Nigerian Naira which will be in circulation starting 15^th December 2022.

According to Governor Godwin Emefiele, the naira notes redesigns have been duly approved by the Federal Government. He went on to state that in line with the transition from old notes to new naira notes, all bank charges for cash deposits have been suspended with immediate effect.

The CBN Governor also stated that the old notes as well as the newly created naira notes shall remain as legal tender and circulate until January 31, 2023, when the old currencies shall seize to be legal tender. He, therefore, advised all citizens to deposit their old naira notes into their various banks in exchange for new ones.

What You Need To Know

1. All Customers of banks are advised to begin paying their old/existing currencies into their various bank accounts so as to enable them to withdraw the new banknotes starting from 15^th December 2022.
2. All Banks currently holding the existing denominations of the currency are expected to begin returning these notes to the Apex Bank (CBN) immediately, as the newly designed currency will be released to the banks on the order of First-come-First-serve basis.
3. Due to the expected rush from customers, all banks are expected to keep open, their various branches from Mondays through to Saturdays to accommodate all cash that will be deposited by their customers.
4. Bank charges on cash deposits shall seize to be in effect between this period. Hence customers should have no fear about bank charges when depositing monies greater than Ten Thousand (10,000) Naira.
5. Both Old and new currencies shall remain as legal tender until January 31^st, 2023 when the old currencies will seize to be accepted.

Did You Know?

In 2020, CBN spent 58.618 Billion Naira to print Naira notes worth 1.06 Trillion Naira.

It is expected that the CBN will spend even more in executing this new policy.

What will be the effect on the already crumbling economy?

Are there Positive and Negative Implications to this policy?

Mr. Temitope Omosuyi, an investment strategist at Afrinvest Securities Ltd, agrees that the redesign will help to expose people who have illicit monies stored in strange places such as secret rooms, toilet pits, warehouses, etc. because these people will now be forced to return these large sums back to the bank to avoid losing them completely. Meanwhile, the EFCC and other government agencies will be on the lookout for such huge deposits to know their original sources.

This will particularly have an impact on counterfeiters because their large sums will be worthless and their printing devices will also become worthless as well, forcing them to go back to their drawing boards.

Political criminals are also not exempted from the impact of this policy. It is well known that corrupt politicians stack huge sums of money outside the bank as their retirement packages or for vote buying in other to attain even much bigger political offices. Unless these stolen monies are returned to the banks, they will become worthless from February 2023, as such, we hope to see some culprits in the coming months.

Kidnappers and Terrorists are known to operate almost entirely in cash, so as to avoid being traced, or having their accounts frozen. Most kidnappers collect ransoms in millions and even after the operation, prefer to keep much of their money in cash. We expect this group of people to also be negatively impacted as they will be forced to either deposit or spend within the short window available to them.

Interesting Fact

As at September 2022, Out N3.23 trillion Naira in circulation in the Nigerian economy, only N500 Billion are transacted in the bank while N2.73 Trillion are outside of the vaults of the banks. This translates to about 85% of Monies being circulated outside of the banks.

The fact above show effectively, how much of the economy is out of reach and control of the Central Bank, as such, the CBN Governor expects that when the old currencies have been brought back to the commercial banks and then to the CBN, the CBN can effectively regain control of the Naira. Emefiele also believes that when CBN regains control over the money supply, the soaring inflation will also be reduced.

On The Flip side of the coin

Fun Fact
(Sadly Nigeria practically has no coin) I said practically, not theoritically.

Omosuyi on the other hand, also believes the CBN’s directive might trigger aggressive spending, especially by these people stacking ill-gotten money, which in turn, could increase inflation even further in the short term.

Speculations are that most of these people will try to convert their money quickly by buying up tangible assets such as lands, houses, luxurious cars, gold, and other pieces of jewelry, etc. we all know what happens when demand is high… yes price goes up too, causing inflation due to the in flocks of excess money in the market.

Another speculation is that the directive will also affect Foreign Exchange as most people (both genuine and illicit), will try to exchange their money (the old notes) for the dollar and other electronic currencies such as Bitcoins, etc. this in effect will put pressure on the value of the naira.

Final Thought

In general, the new CBN directive promises to be a good development and has mostly received positive reviews from people all over the country. Aside from the short-term negative effect of increased inflation and fear due to change, this development is hoped to affect Nigerians positively except for those few miscreants who have for long practiced the culture of hoarding huge sums of money outside of the bank vaults.