New note crisis: CBN may print naira abroad to ease cash crunch

Tamarauemi Ebimini

The Central Bank of Nigeria may bow to mounting pressure and contract the printing of the redesigned N1,000, N500 and N200 notes to foreign contractors in the coming days in order to boost the circulation of the currency.

It was gathered that this had become imperative as sources said the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc, which had been responsible for the printing of the naira, appeared to lack the capacity to meet the demand for the new notes.

This is as the National Council of State advised the apex bank to print more naira notes or re-circulate the old notes, which it had mopped up from circulation, in order to ease the pressure on hapless Nigerians, who had been suffering from the scarcity of the new notes.

A top banker told newsmen on Friday that information available to him indicated that the Mint had succeeded in printing N500bn worth of the new N1,000, N500 and N200 notes and might not have the capacity to do more than that at the moment.

The top banker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject and because he had not been authorised to speak officially on it, said, “It is obvious that what has been printed is not enough. How can you withdraw about N2.1tn from circulation and only print N500bn to replace that?

Efforts to get a response from the CBN through its Director of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, were futile as calls made to his mobile telephone did not connect, while he had yet to respond to WhatsApp messages sent to him.

However, an official of the CBN, who pleaded that his identity should be concealed, said there was no problem with the supply of the new notes by the NSPMC, adding that it was a deliberate policy to print limited amounts in order to encourage Nigerians to embrace other means of transaction other than cash.

When a telephone number listed on the website of the NSPMC was called on Friday, it rang out. A message sent to the same number had not been replied as of the time of filing this report.

The CBN had stated in December that it spent over N800bn between 2017 and 2021 to maintain the naira. The apex bank’s Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Aisha Ahmad, who appeared before the House of Representatives, added that the amount had spiked by N10bn annually and attributed over 90 per cent of the currency management cost to the production of naira notes.