…CANCELS WITHDRAWAL OF DEPUTY DIRECTORS IN CHARGE OF MONITORING TEAMS FROM STATES
James Harrison, Abuja
There is glimmer of hope for Nigerians sleeping at ATM galleries to withdraw the New Naira notes as the Central Bank may have taken some steps to commence distribution of the new Naira notes on Tuesday.
The Network investigation revealed that the CBN was to pump another N200 billion of the new notes into the economy last Tuesday but called it off due to pressure on the Nigerian Security, Minting and Printing Company.
It was gathered that the disappointment forced the CBN to withdraw all its deputy directors saddled with the task of monitoring the distribution of the new Naira notes to the head office in Abuja at the weekend.
The memo withdrawing the deputy directors indicated that they are to be at their respective offices by Monday.
However, on Saturday, a counter memo was issued by the authorities of the bank to all the deputy directors to return to their branches of attachment and operation in the states.
One of our sources explained that the immediate redeployment of the deputy directors to the states nationwide indicated that the CBN has got the money especially after the weighty advise from the National Council of State on Thursday.
In backing the Naira redesign policy of the Buhari Administration, the National Council of States had made its reservations about the hardship foisted on Nigerians and the stress on the economy by the limping implementation of the policy.
The NCS after brainstorming on national issues for over four hours mandated the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to make the new Naira notes available or recirculate old Naira notes to address the hardship caused by the policy in the country.
The source said, “The fact is that we have spent three weeks outside Abuja to monitor the distribution and proper circulation of the new Naira notes.
“Last week, we were expecting some new notes on Tuesday. The bank was to release another N200 billion notes into the economy but that was called off. I cannot be so specific.
“A memo from the head office withdrew all the deputy directors who were deployed to the states to monitor the the distribution of the new currency.
“According to the memo, Sunday, February 12, 2023 was the last day the affected deputy directors were given to return back to the head office.
“A good number of us were already back when another memo was released directing all the affected deputy directors back to the states.
“Of course, this gives a clear indication that there is monitoring job to do with Branch Controllers and that has to do with monitoring, distribution and circulation of the new notes.
“What we were expecting was N200 billion and I think that is what the bank will release in this batch,” the source said.
The Network gathered that since the deputy directors leading the monitoring teams comprising security operatives are leaving for the states on Monday, effective distribution of the new notes to the commercial banks is most likely start on Tuesday.
That would surely put some respite on the agonizing Nigerians who are paying to buy the new notes after being made to surrender the old notes.
An source in a strategic position confided in the Network that the Nigerian Security Minting and Printing Company may have disappointed the CBN last week because of pressure on the outfit.
The source said that the NSMPC is also saddled with the responsibility of printing the election materials for the general elections which is equally a critical national assignment and has come under tremendous pressure.
It was further added that while the NDMPC handles the printing of the Naira locally, it requires the paper and and the ink from countries in Europe.
Companies in the two countries, Germany and UK, were said to have delayed the release of the needed items to NDMPC due to the number of countries whose orders came before that Nigeria.
The source stated further that the CBN is not resting in the bid to address the cash crunch in the country stressing that the release sum of N300 billion is grossly inadequate for an economy of N475 trillion especially when over N2 trillion of old notes have been withdrawn from the economy.
Credit: THE NETWORK.
