The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday announced plans are in the pipeline to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
This, the apex bank disclosed is done to take control of the currency in circulation.
The apex bank lamented that the bulk of the nation’s currency notes was outside bank vaults and this was a development that the CBN would not allow to continue.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while addressing the press in Abuja on the development added that the new design and issues will be effective from December 15, 2022 while urging Nigerians to take their old notes to banks in exchange for the new notes
“To be more specific, as at the end of September 2022, available data at the CBN indicates that N2.7 trillion out of the N3.3 trillion currency in circulation was outside the vault of commercial banks across the country and supposedly held by members of the public,” he said.
“Evidently, currency in circulation has more than doubled since 2015, rising from N1.46 trillion in December 2015 to N3.2 trillion as at September 2022. I must say that this is a worrisome trend that must not be continued to be allowed.”
