The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that the new naira notes are not targeted at individuals or groups as it has been insinuated.
This was even as they encouraged Nigerians to embrace alternative payment channels such as eNaira and internet banking in the face of the cashless Policy.
The director Corporate Communications Department of the CBN Mr Osita Nwanusobi stated this in his address at the CBN Special day at the ongoing 44th Kaduna international trade fair on Saturday.
He said the new naira policy is not in any way targeted at any individual as being insinuated in the public domain.
Represented by Mohammed Abbah, director of capacity development of the bank, CBN said, the theme of this year’s Fair is very apt given the fact that a major challenge emerging countries such as ours continue to face is ‘our inability to seamlessly integrate into the global trading system largely due to the quality and technological content of the goods and services we produce for export.
He reiterated what the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has always said. “The policy is not targeted anyone or any group of persons, rather, it derived from the Bank’s in-house analysis to strengthen our macroeconomic fundamentals and better our socio-economic conditions.
On the naira redesign, he said, “The principal aim of the Bank, with the currency redesign initiative is to make our Monetary Policy decisions more efficacious. Nigerians will observe that there has been a downward trend in inflation, and the exchange rates have been relatively stable.
“Furthermore, we aim to increase financial inclusion in the country by reducing the number of the unbanked population. Thirdly, we aim to support the efforts of our security agencies in combating banditry and ransom-taking in Nigeria through this programme.
“The CBN is not unmindful of the challenges some citizens have had to face in the past few weeks in efforts to get money from their banks or other alternative channels. Indeed, there have been reports of occasional transaction failures. However, we wish to assure you that the Nigerian payment system infrastructure is robust enough to handle the surging transaction volumes across all channels.
“We, therefore, urge Nigerians to embrace alternative payment channels, such as eNaira and internet banking, as we embrace the cashless policy. The advantages of the currency redesign are overwhelmingly enormous and will benefit the economy in the long run.
“As you may be aware, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in line with its developmental function stipulated in the ACBN Act, 2007, as amended, has been at the vanguard of promoting quality export through its Produce, Add Value and Export (PAVE) concept, which aims to make Nigerians consume what they produce, add value to such products and export the surpluses.
“The PAVE option of the CBN is similar to the export-led industrialization policy in South-East Asia, which transformed the economic fortunes of the Asian-Tigers-Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. The concept is designed to be key for fast-tracking a bucket of substitutes for crude oil export.