CBN deputy gov briefs Reps, says 500 million new notes ordered

Deputy Governors Central Bank of NigeriaAisha Ahmad on Thursday briefed the House of Representatives on the bank’s latest policies.

Mrs. Ahmad replaced Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele who is currently out of the country to address health challenges.

Background

The House called on the CBN governor over the cash withdrawal limit and currency redesign.

The CBN had on December 6 announced a new policy to limit unwithdrawn income by individuals and corporate entities to N100, 000 and N500, 000 respectively per week.

On Wednesday, the CBN announced a policy review with the individual withdrawal limit now N500,000 weekly and institutions N5 million weekly.

The bank redesigned the N1,000, N500 and N200 notes, and fixed January 31 as the deadline for the old notes to cease to be legal tender.

Mr. Emefiele failed to comply with the previous two invitations from the House. On Wednesday, the lower house approved a request by the CBN for Ms. Ahmad, who is the Deputy Governor for Financial System Stability, to brief the House.

500 million notes

While responding to questions from lawmakers about the total amount of money printed, Ms. Ahmad said the bank had ordered a total of 500 million notes, however, she could not give the exact amount printed.

“I cannot share that now because I only want to give the exact figure,” Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) said in response to a question about the exact amount printed.

---

Despite his explanation, several members still raised the question of the full value of the new currency.

Babajide Obanikoro (APC, Lagos) asked how much the bank decided to print.

Also, Mark Gbillah (LP, Benue) asked Mrs. Ahmad about the total cost of printing, whether the money has been appropriated by the National Assembly and the full value of the new currency.

The CBN representative’s inability to answer questions created loud rumblings on the ground, prompting the spokesperson, Femi Gbajabiamila, to call for calm.

“The question was how much was printed, and you (Ms. Ahmad) do not have the exact figure. It’s okay, he’s giving his answers.

“….. Honorable member, we are here for a brief briefing – we have requested a meeting. He gave us information..You asked your questions and he answered: the question is, how much was printed? He doesn’t know You can’t force that from him. He doesn’t know Let’s move on to the next question.

“Honorable colleagues, I am about to end this conference. Knowing that you do not want information, I will close this conference,” said Mr. Gbajabiamila to restore order in the House.

At the last minute, Ms. Ahmad later revealed that the bank had promised “500 million service currency,” but did not provide further details.

Withdrawal policy

Speaking on the implementation of the withdrawal limit policy, Mr. Soli, the Katsina Member of Parliament, said the banking sector in Nigeria lacks three critical infrastructures for the success of the policy.

ALSO READ: CBN changes withdrawal policy, raises weekly limits

According to him, three infrastructures are critical, namely electricity, telecommunications and banking. He stated that these infrastructures are missing in some rural areas.

Mr. Ahmad emphasized that Nigeria has the financial services to implement the policy.

“We have a very robust banking system that includes bank branches, micro finance bank branches, POS machines, ATMs, agent banking, E-Naira and many other options.

“Specifically, between banks and microfinance banks, we have 6,500 locations. 900,000 POS terminals, 14,000 ATMs across the country and 1.4 million agents,” he said.

Mrs. Ahmed assured the lawmakers that their concerns will be taken into consideration.