It is good news that the Senate has rejected the proposed introduction of N5,000 notes by the Central Bank ofNigeria, CBN. The governor of the apex bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi shocked the nation with the decision that this highest denomination of the Naira will be in circulation next year.
Surprisingly, the CBN is still convinced of its desirability when other stakeholders have rejected the introduction in its entirety. The outgoing President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA Joseph Daudu, SAN pointed out that N5,000 notes will weaken the Naira and promote money laundering as well as massive monetary inducement within election periods.
The NBA together with the NLC National President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar also fumed that the projected N40 billion for the printing of the new notes is unaffordable to the economy.
The botched new Naira regime is topped by the N5, 000 notes while N20, N10 and N5 will be in coins. The conversion to coins must have precipitated Senate’s prompt action. In fact, the decision of the CBN scorched many (ears) as it came at a time when N1 and 10K coins have gone out of circulation because of their irrelevancy to current price indices.
Does it mean that the CBN governor does not interact with his country men and women outside his elitist class to be told about the pains and tears at the grass roots?
Could it be that the apex bank no longer empowers its field staff to determine the performance of various denominations of Naira in public places like markets? Mallam Sanusi’s predecessor in office, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, sickened and worried by the declining purchasing power of the Naira was poised to make N200 the highest denomination of Naira as his blueprint at checking inflation or keeping it at a tolerable level.
Rather than fuel inflation with this unpopular policy, the CBN ought to have initiated fiscal measures to stimulate the inflation-ridden economy causing the national currency to appreciate in value.
There is a host of more pressing issues to keep the apex bank busy. The first being a high level public sensitization campaign on the rejection of torn, defaced, smeared or worn out Naira notes. These Naira notes slow down and occasionally impede monetary transactions in Southern states where it is no longer advisable to pocket Naira notes received from somebody without screening them for badly mutilated ones.
Mallam Sanusi should also prevail on commercial banks nationwide not to recycle badly torn, worn out or mutilated currency notes back into circulation but withheld them for replacement.
