5 important things to know about the Central Bank of Nigeria redesigning the Naira

Nigeria is no stranger to the latter. The country’s currency has undergone a few redesigns since coming into existence. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, this change occasionally occurs for a couple of reasons including making the currency more secure; enhancing their durability to last longer in circulation and streamlining their aesthetic and safety features.

The last time the bank redesigned the naira was in 2014 when it changed the design of the 100 naira note to commemorate 100 years since Nigeria was created.

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria announced today during a press briefing that the country’s currency is going to undergo another change. He urged Nigerians to brace up.

Below are five things to note following The Central Bank of Nigeria’s new directive;

dates: The governor of the Central Bank disclosed that the bank would release re-designed Naira notes by December 15, 2022. He also noted that existing notes would seize to be regarded as a legal tender by January 31, 2023.

Redesigned notes: According to the current information available, the notes that would be redesigned includes, the N100, N200, N500, and N1000. Anything below the aforementioned denominations would remain unchanged.

rationale: The CBN has cited counterfeiting and hoarding as reasons why the note is being redesigned. He noted that 85% of the currency in circulation is being hoarded by Nigerians. He explained that these things are reasons why an interest rate would go up.

Best practices: It is typically a global best practice for central banks to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender every 5 to 8 years, but the Naira, save 2014’s commemoration, has not been redesigned in the last 20 years.”

Submission deadline: Effective immediately, banks have been charged to start returning the denominations currently in their possession to the CBN, as the newly designed currencies will be released to the banks on the order of first-come-first-serve basis. Customers of banks are also expected to start paying their existing currencies into their banks. Therefore, all banks have been asked to keep their currency processing centers open from Mondays through to Saturdays.

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