Hoarding, and not the small quantity issued to banks, was responsible for the scarcity of the new N1, 000, N500 and N200 notes, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Thursday.
The bank spoke through its Consumer Protection Director, Mrs. Rashidat Mongunu, who was monitoring microfinance banks in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State.
Mrs. Mongunu, who led a team of the apex court stopped over to pay homage to the Olofa of Offa, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, before heading to Stockcorp Microfinance and Ibolo Microfinance banks.
She said the redesigned notes were already made available by the CBN, but it is those hoarding them that make it scarce and people now throng banks to collect money almost at the same time.
The CBN director did not identify those hoarding the new notes.
He said: “Because of the attitude of some Nigerians in hoarding the money, even those that don’t really need the money are rushing to get it and keep, not to spend.
“Currency management is a cycle, but we have not allowed the cycle to mature, because when you issue out currency as CBN, what we expect is that the Naira issued out will come back into the banking system again.
“But now, everybody collecting the Naira is hoarding it. So, no matter how much Naira we put out there, if we continue with this attitude and the CBN issue from now till December, it will still not be enough.
“And you know that in every economy, you must have a proper accountability on the indent.
“You just don’t issue out Naira for the fun of it, you issue the amount that is commensurate with the level of activity you have in that country.”
The CBN director added that the situation could only get better when people started spending money already hoarded because enough money was already in circulation.
Mongunu said: “There is Naira out there. I have been in Kwara for over three weeks and we have been allocating money daily.
“The truth is that if the currency is circulating the way it should and not being hoarded, we shouldn’t have a problem.
“The only thing is for us to change our attitude because it can only get better when people start spending the money they have hoarded.”
She said the Naira redesign policy was not to punish anyone but to better the economy.
Oba Gbadamosi said the problems being faced by Nigerians on the extension of the legality of the old notes from January 31 to tomorrow.
He said the people had already deposited all that they have before January 31 in anticipation to start spending the new notes on February 1, hoping that it will be available, but it’s not so.
The monarch urged the apex bank to make the new notes available.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
