We must redesign naira notes, says Sanusi

Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi yesterday In his appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency said the apex bank would revisit the controversial currency notes redesign with the aim of tackling the growing cases of fake currency notes in the country

The CBN boss said the protest against the introduction of N5000 notes and redesign of naira notes planned by CBN last year was unnecessary, insisting that the country must revisit the redesign of the notes, which, he said, had lasted between eight to ten years so that the fake currency notes in the system can be addressed.

According to him, 8.4 percent of notes in circulation were fake in every N1 million notes, describing the situation as alarming. He said, “one of the reasons we wanted to have a restructuring of the redesign of the currency a few months ago was because many of our notes had been in existence for upward of eight or even 10 years, but the best practice is that within a period of five to eight years you redesign the currency after which counterfeiters tend to catch up with.