CBN ends disruptive naira policy, begins release of notes

Nigeria’s central bank has finally ended its policy of seizing higher bank notes months after introducing the expensive measure that badly affected lives and businesses in the country.

The bank says it has commenced the release of bank notes stashed in its vaults to commercial banks across the country, to enable payments to customers who endured the disruptive the policy.

Banks will work throughout the weekend to make payments through ATM points and within banking halls, a spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nigeria, Isa Abdulmumin, said on Twitter Friday.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria has confirmed the evacuation of banknotes from its vault to commercial banks across the country as part of a coordinated effort to ease the circulation of banknotes of various denominations,” Mr Abdulmumin said.

“The CBN has also directed all commercial banks to open for operations on Saturdays and Sundays.”

He said “a substantial amount of money, in various denominations,” had already been received by the commercial banks for onward circulation to respective customers.

The governor of the bank, Godwin Emefiele, will lead teams to monitor compliance by banks, he said.

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The central bank introduced the so-called naira redesign policy in October 2023 but its implementation in January caused massive disruption in the economy ahead of general elections. The bank said it aimed to curb inflation, counterfeiting and insecurity but government data show the measure backfired as prices have surged instead.

Analysts expected a reversal after the polls last weekend after the elections, but that did not happen despite a meeting of the CBN on Tuesday when the bank raised its benchmark interest rate.

The bank only took action to ease widespread suffering after the organized labour, NLC, vowed to begin its strike next Wednesday in protest, according to Punch, which first reported the reversal first.