CBN to flood economy with lower naira denominations

THE acute shortage of lower denominations of naira being witnessed in recent times in Nigeria will soon be a thing of the past, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intends to flood the economy with lower naira denominations.

Aside this, the bankers’ committee has expressed worry over the fragile security existing in bank premises nationwide, while also planning interest rate reduction for small and medium scale enterprises.

Addressing the media shortly after the meeting of the committee, in Abuja, the Director of Banking Supervision of the apex bank, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, supported by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officers of the Union Bank, Diamond Bank and Citi Bank, Emeka Emuwa, Dr Alex Ofi and Omar Hafiz respectively, disclosed that the apex bank was aware of the problems being encountered by the people on account of shortage of lower naira denominations in the country.

Martins, who said the lower naira denominations scarcity problem became manifested as a result of the truncation of the CBN currency restructuring programme, said arrangements were in top gear to flood the economy with lower naira denominations, to ease the problems associated with the scarcity.

The director also said the quality of notes to churn out would be better than the existing ones, once the process of currency restructuring commenced.

The bank chief executive officers, in their briefing, expressed dissatisfaction with the level of security in the bank premises.

According to Emuwa, the committee, at its meeting attended by the Inspector General of the Police, discussed on the poor state of security in the banks and resolved to improve the security situation.

Source: Nigerian Tribune