Finance ministry not aware of naira redesign by CBN — Minister


BARELY Forty Eight hours after the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele announced that the apex bank would redesign the country’s currency notes of N200, N500 and N1000 to take effect from December 15 2022, the Federal Government said that it was not aware of the bank’s policy.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmad who commented on the policy, during the  2023 budget defence session she had with  the Senate Committee on Finance, however said that if implemented, it portends great consequences for the nation and its economy. She then warned CBN of consequences that may arise from it.

Senator Opeyemi Bamidele  (APC Ekiti Central) had during the  session told the Finance Minister that barely two days after announcement of the policy by CBN, repercussion of it on the value of Naira to US dollar was being felt. He said, “ just two days after announcement of the policy, value of Naira to a US dollar has risen from N740 to N788 to a US dollar due to rush in exchange of Naira Notes for foreign currencies, particularly the dollar. To me, the policy may be a well conceived one, but the timing going by realities on ground, is very wrong as the Naira may fall to as low as N1,000 to a US dollar before January 31, 2023 fixed for full implementation of the policy.”

In her comment, the minister said that  she and her ministry were not aware of the policy but only heard of it from the media.

She said: “Distinguished Senators, we were not consulted at the Ministry of Finance by CBN on the planned Naira redesigning and cannot comment on it as regards merits or otherwise. However as a Nigerian privileged to be at the top of Nigeria’s fiscal management, the policy as rolled out at this time, portends serious consequences on the value of the Naira to other foreign currencies. I will however appeal to this committee to invite the CBN governor for required explanations as regards merits of the planned policy and rightness or otherwise of its implementation now.”

It would be recalled that CBN Governor Emefiele had on Wednesday  said that the apex bank would redesign the country’s currency notes in order to take control of the currency in circulation saying that  the  bulk of the nation’s currency notes were outside the bank vaults.

According to him, the planned policy was in line with Sections 19, Subsections a and b of the CBN Act 2007, upon which the Management of the CBN sought and obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to redesign, produce, and circulate new series of banknotes at N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.

Culled from Vanguard

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