Naira Scarcity: CBN Dispenses Mangled N50 Notes to Banks

As Nigerians struggle to survive the hardship necessitated by the naira scarcity, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks have traded blame over the shortage. The CBN has allegedly been distributing mutilated and rumpled N50 notes to commercial banks. 

A video cited by Nairametric showed stacks of disfigured 50 naira notes sent to the commercial banks by the CBN. A source at one of the bank branches revealed that the bank deposited N100 million old naira notes to the CBN, but only received N10 million new naira notes. 

Reacting to the popular notion that banks are hoarding notes, one of the tier-one banks claimed that the CBN had only provided an average of N1 million per week to them since the beginning of the year. Expressing displeasure at the development, the bank noted that its ATMs disburse roughly N25 million cash daily. 

CBN blames commercial banks for naira scarcity

In response to the outcry of Nigerians on the unavailability of cash in bank ATMs, CBN had earlier stated that the redesigned notes have already been made available.  It revealed that N4 million of new naira notes were hoarded in some commercial banks in the state.

Also speaking in Kwara State, The CBN Director of Consumer Protection, Mrs Rashidat Mongunu noted that “Currency management is a cycle but we have not allowed the cycle to mature, because when you issue out currency as CBN, what we expect is that the Naira issued out will come back into the banking system again.

Mrs Rashidat also said, “if we continue with this attitude and the CBN issues from now till December, it will still not be enough.”

The way forward

Commercial banks and Nigerians have been charged to change their attitude towards the naira.

“The truth is that if the currency is circulating the way it should and not being hoarded, we shouldn’t have a problem. The only thing is for us to change our attitude because it can only get better when people start spending the money they have hoarded,” Mongunu stressed.

Also, financial analysts have called for the punishment of bank officials caught sabotaging the CBN’s policy. Recall that the naira redesign policy was aimed at reducing the amount of currency outside the vaults of the banks, but naira hoarding will frustrate the CBN policy.

NEXT:Naira Scarcity: Council of State Orders CBN to Recirculate Old Notes