Currency in circulation rose by 4.58 per cent from N2.84 trillion in September to N2.97 trillion in October.
This was contained in a report released by the Central Bank of Nigeria, showing that it amounted to a N129 billion increase.
Analysis of the report showed that in August, the currency in circulation had dropped to N2.78 trillion from N2.81 trillion in July. In June, it was N2.74 trillion and in May, N2.79 trillion. It stood at N2.79 trillion in April and N2.8 trillion in March.
That amounted to N2.78 trillion and N2.83 trillion in February and January respectively.
The apex bank noted that the currency in circulation had increased by N465.47 billion or 19.06 per cent, from N2.44 trillion in 2019 to N2.91 trillion in 2020.
The bank said: “In 2020, there were higher withdrawals by DMBs than deposits, due to the panic need to hold cash to deal with the emergencies and reduced banking hours due to restrictions to curb the spread of the pandemic.”
The apex bank said it developed and unveiled a clean note policy and banknote fitness guidelines in 2018 to preserve public trust and maintain the quality of circulated notes in the economy.
The guidelines provide a blueprint of quarterly and yearly activities to ensure that this objective was achieved.
The apex bank said the policy provides that every newly printed and existing banknotes should measure up to predefined standards before circulation and re-circulation in the economy.
The Apex bank said that it uses the accounting/statistical/withdrawals and deposits approach” to compute the currency in circulation in the country.
It said this approach involved tracking the fluctuations in currency in circulation on a transaction-by-transaction basis.
According to the CBN, for every withdrawal made by a deposit money bank at any CBN branch, an increase in currency in circulation is recorded; and for every deposit made by a DMB at one of CBN’s branches, a decrease in CIC is recorded.