The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has denied claims that the scarcity of the newly redesigned Naira notes was caused by shortage of printing materials.
Over the last couple of days, some news outlets had been reporting about the shortage of currency printing materials at the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC).
The news outlets quoted the CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, as attributing the challenge in the distribution of the new notes to shortage of materials.
According to a statement by Osita Nwanisobi, CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, at no time did Emefiele make such disclosure during his presentation to the National Council of States during its meeting on Friday.
“What the CBN governor told the meeting was that the NSPMC was working on printing denominations of the Naira to meet the transaction needs of Nigerians,” Nwanisobi said.
He expressed CBN’s appreciation to various stakeholders for the concern about their distribution of the Naira.
He, however, said that the apex bank was alarmed at the extent at which vested interests were attempting to manipulate facts and pitch the public against it.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the CBN remains committed to performing its monetary policy function as stipulated in the CBN Act.
“We also wish to reiterate that the NSPMC has capacity and enough materials to print the required indent of the Naira.
“The CBN, therefore, wishes to appeal to the public to disregard the said report and exercise more restraint,” he said.
He said that the apex bank was working assiduously to increase the circulation of new notes in the country.
Similarly, Nwanisobi debunked a misleading voice note on social media alleging that the CBN planned to shut down some Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), particularly in a certain geopolitical region of the country.
“We wish to state unequivocally that there is no such plan. The claims are illogical and do not comform with the workings of the Nigerian banking system.
“The public is, therefore, advised to ignore such recordings as they do not represent the policy thrust of the CBN,” he said.
