The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has denounced the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) plans to redesign 200, 500 and 1,000 naira notes.
They claim that revamping the naira notes is not currently an economic priority given the difficulties Nigeria’s economy is currently experiencing.
According to report, the Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa, offered the society’s perspective on the situation in a statement and stated that the CBN needs to take additional action in order to recover the nation’s economy.
Based on the responses of Nigerians, Musa characterised the action as a misplaced priority.
The CISLAC director advanced that the CBN should direct its strength to guard the country’s foreign exchange reserves against external outflows and also make forex accessible to ordinary Nigerians who genuinely and legitimately need it.
He added that the huge blow to foreign direct investment amounts to the inability of the apex bank to do its job effectively.
Musa noted that “Firstly, the CBN’s decision to redesign and reissue new 200, 500 and 1000 notes is not an economic priority and barely a solution to addressing Nigeria’s poor monetary policy challenges and growing economic woes.
Especially at a time when the country is grappling with huge fiscal deficits, a free fall of the naira, soaring inflation rates, multiple forex rates and rising borrowing costs. The reasons for this decision seem no different from those given for the forex demand management strategy which resulted in a non-satisfactory conclusion as the artificially low exchange rate failed to be as reflective of the market as possible to improve supply, but this time it only threatens damning economic consequences for Nigerians.
“The public perception that this decision holds no value proposition for the economy, reiterates the tendency of the CBN to be distracted from fulfilling priority statutory obligations.
“Various comments and responses from concerned Nigerians, show that a large number of Nigerians are worried about the misplacement of priorities of the Apex Bank to make such a decision that comes with possibly huge logistics costs and avoidable dislocations to small businesses, most of whom are in the informal sector,” the CISLAC boss remarked
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