CBN To Introduce N5000 Note In 2013

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday said it would forge ahead with the introduction of the N5,000 note next year.

The apex bank also said it has resolved to stop the production of polymer currency notes.

Its Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr Ugochukwu Okoroafor, spoke with reporters in Abuja.

He said the apex bank would sensitise the public on the introduction of N5,000 note into the economy.

According to the CBN spokesman, “people the world over thought polymer will be a great replacement for paper currency but it has not turned out the way it was planned”.

Polymer notes, he said, are “difficult to destroy, incinerating old currency notes through briquetting was difficult in the case of polymer notes in an environmentally friendly way.”

In addition, he said polymer currency “is produced by just one company in the world, an Australian company called Securrency.”

The CBN, he said, has tried using polymer currency notes “and decided that polymer is not the way to go. It is time to move in the right direction than to continue in a direction that may not be favourable; it was a decision that didn’t quite turn out well, the whole world experimented with polymer and people thought that polymer was okay until they learnt otherwise.”

This move to do away with polymer notes he said is consistent with the CBN position of changing with times and technology, saying that “we must move forward and that is why the currency review is important”.

He said: “We are about to carry out sensitisation campaign on the introduction of N5000 note and the restructuring of the nation’s other currencies. Everything will not take off at the first quarter of next year. We are starting with a particular currency in the first quarter of next year, there will still be currency and coins for the denominations that will be coined like N5, N10 and N20 so that both will be operational side by side.”

Okoroafor said it would be cheaper to print and issue N5000 note.

Traders, who move money around, he said, would appreciate the need for the issuance of N5000 note while those at the low end of the transaction chain would also benefit from the new currency restructuring initiative.

He said the apex bank has started talking to relevant authorities, including members of the National Assembly on the currency restructuring initiative.

The restructuring exercise, he said, is within the mandate of the CBN.

Okoroafor said the president has given approval for the campaign to begin.

He said: “We want to be among the top 20 largest economy in 2020; we believe in it. What we should do is pray for Nigeria to have a financial system that can support one of the world’s largest economies. We cannot do it, if we don’t have the right framework.

“We want to ensure that life is made a lot easier for Nigerians and will continue to improve the system.”

Okoroafor saidthe report that N40 billion would be spent to print the N5000 note is false, saying the cost is in the CBN annual report.