President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday unveiled the redesigned naira notes.
Recall that CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele had on Tuesday said that the president will unveil the newly designed N1,000, N500 and N200 notes.
Nigeria will revamp its currency notes for the first time in 19 years with today’s launch.
The CBN governor refuted claims made during a briefing held after the event but before the Federal Executive Council meeting that the early release of the new notes was an attempt to target specific Nigerians.
Mr. Emefiele made an appeal to the public, pleading with them to refrain from making such assumptions and stating that there was no need to spread such rumors.
He claims that the CBN will scrutinize the withdrawal procedure and step up its monitoring efforts.
The amount of cash that can be withdrawn over the counter would be severely limited, according to Emefiele, as it collaborates with the EFCC to keep track of the intentions behind any significant transactions.
He claims that the newly designed currency note cannot ever be counterfeited and adds that the CBN would change the notes every five to eight years to prevent this from happening.
The CBN governor declared that the apex bank is now more motivated to turn Nigeria into a cashless economy, as in other countries, following the debut of the new notes that go into circulation today.
President Buhari stressed the value of redesigning the new naira notes during the event that took place before the council meeting. He explained that it will help the government deal with the problem of illicit financial flows, corruption, strengthen the country’s economy, and ensure that the value of the naira advances.
He remarked that the first batch of money, which was manufactured domestically by the Nigeria printing and minting company, will essentially prevent the naira notes from being counterfeited, noting that the currency redesign will also support the CBN’s Monetary policy objective.
But the president made an appeal to Nigerians, pleading with them to accept the new strategy for redesigning the naira.