CBN Governor, Emefiele Reveals Why New Naira Notes Are Scarce

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has revealed why new naira notes are scarce.

Emefiele on Friday noted that the apex bank cannot print adequate naira notes to replace the old N200, N500 and 1,000 notes because the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (The Mint) is suffering from capacity constraints.

The CBN Governor revealed this during the National Council of State meeting in Abuja.

The scarcity of the newly printed naira notes and the grievances of Nigerians has seen some banks shut down.

The development has seen some state governors sue the federal government and the CBN due to the redesign policy.

Recall that CBN extended the deadline from January 31st, 2023 to the 10th of February, 2023, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained the Federal Government from enforcing the deadline of old naira notes and adjourned the case to February 15 for hearing.

Following the ruling on the apex court, the CBN has failed to release a statement in reaction to the ruling of the Supreme Court.

A source that spoke with Premium Times disclosed that the Mint had received CBN’s request to print 70 million copies of the new notes.

The source added that the new notes, totalling N126 billion to be pumped into circulation by today.

However, the request of the CBN could not be met because “the Mint doesn’t have the capacity.”

A source said, “The Mint has run out of papers to print N500 and 1,000 notes.

“They have placed orders with a German firm and De La Rue of the UK (for papers) but they have been placed on a long waiting list so their orders cannot be met now.”