The Central Bank of Nigeria will have destroyed almost N6 trillion worth of damaged and outdated currency by the end of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), in May 2023.
Data from the CBN’s annual reports between 2016 and 2020 revealed that throughout the five-year period, the apex bank destroyed mutilated banknotes worth N4.1 trillion. As of Sunday afternoon, our correspondent was unable to easily obtain information on the number of damaged banknotes the central bank disposed of in 2021 and 2022.
However, the central bank anticipates destroying more than 80% of the N3.23 trillion in banknotes now in use following the plan to redesign N100, N200, N500, and N1, 000 naira notes.
With this action, the current administration will have destroyed at least N6 trillion worth of naira notes.
Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, declared on Wednesday that the bank would issue newly designed naira notes by December 15, 2022.
During a special news conference in Abuja, Emefiele made this declaration and explained the reasoning behind the change.
The CBN governor claims that the action is intended to reduce counterfeit money in circulation as well as ransom payments to terrorists and kidnappers.
According to a breakdown of CBN data for the years 2016 through 2020, the central bank destroyed mutilated notes totalling N829.94 billion in 2016. The CBN once more destroyed damaged currency worth N977.23 billion in 2017. Banknotes of N814.59 billion, N814.44 billion, and N698.59 billion, respectively, were destroyed in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020.
