President Buhari, Where Are The New Naira Notes?

The new naira notes introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the wake of its now voided naira redesign policy have become scarce despite the increase in currency circulation from N982.09 billion in February to N1.6 trillion at the end of March.

Daily Trust on Sunday observed the scarcity of the new naira notes from major banks, markets and Point of Sale (PoS) outlets in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Niger, Borno, Imo and across the country.

It would be recalled that the CBN had introduced new notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 on December 15, 2022, with a plan to phase out the old notes in January before it was moved to February 10.

This led to weeks of hardship following the inability of the apex bank to circulate enough new notes after mopping up N2.3trn old notes from circulation during the policy implementation.

However, the Supreme Court came to the rescue of Nigerians in a landmark judgement voiding the policy and directing that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 should remain legal tender till December 31.

While the latest figure shows a 71 per cent increase in currency circulation as the CBN had injected N701.4bn into circulation, the new notes are becoming unavailable for the majority of Nigerians.

-Dailytrust