New Naira: We didn't see these challenges coming - CBN admits

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has accepted culpability for the resultant chaos of the naira redesign and cash withdrawal policy, saying it didn't anticipate them.

Recall that angry Nigerians have been staging protests and attacking banks across the country amid difficulties in accessing their cash to carry out regular transactions.

Reacting to the development, a CBN Deputy Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, while speaking at the 22nd fellowship conferment lecture and ceremony organised by the Nigerian Society of Engineers in Abuja, acknowledged that there was an oversight.

The lecture held on Thursday, February 9, 2023, was titled, 'The intricacies of the naira redesign and its benefit to Nigerians.'

According to the Central banker, the process of redesigning the currency had been on for two years, and was done with no intention to punish anyone as being erroneously claimed by a section of the public.

The Deputy Governor also argued that numerous benefits have been achieved including retrieval of N2 trillion to the banking system since implementation commenced.

He, however, admitted that some ingenious Nigerians have taken advantage of the policy to create a whole new line of business which is responsible for the current challenges.

But, he vowed that the apex bank will do everything within its authorities to ensure that it salvages the current situation and makes the challenges become a thing of the past as soon as possible.

Shonubi's words: “As you know, Nigerians are very ingenious. And we created a whole new line of business for people that we never envisaged.

“An aspect of that is queuing, where you sell your position on the queue for money. Night crawling, where you wait till night, collect numerous cards from your friends and family and go to an ATM and empty them using different cards and then take the cash to sell.

“So it’s been a bit stressful to be honest because we did not anticipate this kind of behaviour.”

Nigerians continue to lament the shortage of cash flow since the initial announcement of a deadline for the validity of the old naira notes.