President Muhammadu Buhari says the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) assured him that there was “capacity, manpower and equipment” to print
enough new naira notes.
He said the assurance was given to him before he considered
giving approval for the naira redesign policy.
The president spoke on Friday after meeting with governors
of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the matter.
There has been increased tension in the country as Nigerians
struggle to obtain cash at banks and point-of-sale terminals.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had given a deadline of
January 31 for the use of old notes — but it was recently extended to February
10.
However, several stakeholders have said the number of days
is insufficient to guarantee the widespread circulation of the new notes.
Speaking on Friday, the president said he demanded an
“undertaking from the CBN that no new notes will be printed in a foreign
country and they in turn gave him assurances that there was enough capacity,
manpower and equipment to print the currency for local needs”.
The president said that given the present situation, he will
“go back to find out what was actually happening”.
Buhari also expressed doubts about the commitment of banks
to the success of the policy, describing them as “inefficient”.
“Some banks are inefficient and only concerned about
themselves, even if a year is added, problems associated with selfishness and
greed won’t go away,” he said.
The APC governors had earlier appealed to the president to
allow both the old and new naira notes to co-exist to ease the suffering of
Nigerians.
Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, said although the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mopped up over N2 trillion of the old notes in
circulation, only N300 billion worth of new notes were printed.
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