According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the redesigned naira is intended to increase financial inclusion and assist security services in combating insecurity.
Saturday address at the 44th international trade exhibition in Kaduna. The CBN spokeswoman, Osita Nwasinobi, urged Nigerians to adopt other payment methods including as eNaira and online banking.
Nwasinobi, who was represented by Mohammed Abbah, director of capacity development, stated that Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had always emphasized that the redesign of the naira banknotes was “not aimed at any particular person or group of people.”
“The primary objective of the bank’s currency redesign program is to improve the effectiveness of our monetary policy actions,” he explained.
“Nigerians will see that inflation has been declining and that exchange rates have been reasonably constant.
“Additionally, we intend to improve financial inclusion in the country by decreasing the number of unbanked individuals.
“Thirdly, the purpose of this program is to help the work of our security services in Nigeria to combat banditry and ransom-taking.
“The CBN is cognizant of the difficulties some citizens have encountered in recent weeks attempting to withdraw funds from their banks or other alternative channels.
“There have been reports of transaction failures on occasion. However, we like to tell you that the Nigerian payment system infrastructure is resilient enough to accommodate the escalating amount of transactions across all channels.”
He noted that the reform of the currency will have huge long-term benefits for the economy.
In the meantime, despite the fact that the CBN deadline had passed on February 10, the federal government stated that it will comply with the supreme court decision preventing the central bank from prohibiting the use of old naira notes until February 15.