According to reports, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may have destroyed banknotes worth more than N6 trillion that were damaged and old during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
In a report released by the Punch, information gleaned from the CBN’s annual reports for the five years between 2016 and 2020 showed that the central bank destroyed disfigured banknotes totaling N4.1 trillion during that time.
“Our correspondent could not readily obtain data on the amount of mutilated banknotes disposed off by the central bank in 2021 and 2022 as of press time on Sunday,” the newspaper said.
It further noted that the CBN is expected to destroy over 80 per cent of the N3.23 trillion banknotes currently in circulation as a result of its decision to redesign N100, N200, N500, and N1, 000 notes.
“The move will bring the total amount of naira notes destroyed by the current administration to at least N6tn,” according to the report.
Remember that the CBN said by December 15, 2022, the bank will issue redesigned 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes, according to recent announcements from its Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
At a special press conference in Abuja, the governor of the central bank dropped the clue.
He stated that the action was intended to reduce counterfeit money, ransom payments to terrorists and kidnappers, and manage the amount of currency in circulation.
According to the report’s breakdown of CBN statistics on the destruction of naira notes from 2016 to 2020, “In 2016, the apex bank destroyed the sum of N829.94bn in mutilated notes. In 2017, the sum of N977.23bn in mutilated banknotes was again destroyed by the CBN. The years 2018, 2019 and 2020 saw the destruction of N814.59bn, N814.44bn and N698.59bn banknotes, respectively.”
It added, “In a related development, further findings showed that N3.88bn was spent by the CBN to destroy the N4.1tn mutilated banknotes disposed off between 2016 and 2020.
“This followed an expenditure of N1.43bn spent on currency disposal in 2016, while the succeeding years of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 witnessed currency disposal costs of N594.6m, N662.2m, N647.8m and N538.5m, respectively.”
The Punch’s report comes as certain stakeholders are protesting the CBN’s decision to redesign the naira notes.
