By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) branch controller in Anambra State, Mr Benedict Maduagwu, has disclosed that the apex bank would henceforth mount surveillance on commercial banks in Onitsha following report of trading of the new naira notes.

He warned the banks that every money allotted to them had security codes.

Onitsha main market traders had during the CBN Sensitization of Stakeholders on the Currency Redesign in Anambra held at Market leaders office hall, Onitsha, Main Market, on Thursday reported to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that the redesigned naira notes of N1,000, N500 and N200 are being sold in the market by people suspected to be agents of commercial banks in the area.

They said that because of the dark deals, commercial banks were reluctant to dispense the new notes to the public.

To this regard, the Chairman of Onitsha Main Market, Innocent Ezeoha, implored the CBN to come to the market and exchange the new currency notes for the traders.

In his response, Maduagwu said that the CBN would sanction commercial banks that would hoard the new naira notes.

While noting that currency management is a key function of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as enshrined in Section 2 (b) of the CBN Act 2007, he said: “The integrity of a local legal lender, the efficiency of its supply, as policy are some of the hallmarks of a great Central Bank.”

“In recent times, however, currency management in Nigeria has faced several Challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.

“Some of these challenges primarily include: First, a significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with Statistics showing that 82.72 trillion out of the 3.26 trillion currency in circulation as of June 2022 was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country, and supposedly held by members of the public.

“This statistic shows that 84.71 percent of currency in circulation are outside the vaults of commercial banks, with only 15.29 percent in the Central Bank and

“Second, is the worsening shortage of clean and fit banknotes with attendant negative perception of the CBN and increased risk to financial stability; third, there is increasing ease by criminals and risk of counterfeiting evidenced by several security reports received at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The benefits of the currency redesign to the Nigerian economy are enormous given that: This policy will help to control inflation as the exercise will bring the

Hoarded currency into the banking system, thereby making monetary policy more effective.

“It will also help with better design and implementation of monetary policy as we would have much more accurate data on money supply and monetary aggregates. We believe that this exercise would help in increasing financial inclusion, moving towards a more cashless economy, and ensuring greater formalization of the Nigerian economy,” he said.

The CBN branch Controller further stressed that the new design and current series are to circulate side-by-side until January 31, 2023 when the current series will cease to be a legal tender.

“We advise members of the public to ensure that they deposit cash holdings in these denominations at their commercial banks,” he added.

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