By John Ikani
The management team of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will convene on Monday to address the ongoing crisis caused by the naira redesign policy and come up with solutions to the cash shortage affecting the country.
At the meeting, scheduled to take place at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, top officials of the bank will consider the advice given by the National Council of State, suggesting that the bank print more of the redesigned N1,000, N500 and N200 notes, or re-circulate the old ones that have been withdrawn from circulation, in order to alleviate the cash crunch.
The meeting will result in a fresh directive from the CBN to Deposit Money Banks on whether they should continue to accept deposits of the old notes or not.
Earlier, reports had suggested that the CBN was considering hiring other firms to print the redesigned naira notes, however, the bank has refuted these claims and stated that it is capable of printing the new notes.
A statement released by CBN spokesman, Osita Nwasinobi, on Saturday affirmed that at no point did the CBN governor make such a statement during his presentation to the National Council of State on February 10, 2023.
So far, the Nigerian Printing and Minting Agency has printed 500 billion Naira worth of the new N1,000, N500 and N200 notes, while the CBN has withdrawn approximately N2.1trn of the old notes from circulation.
