A northern group under the agesis of the Concerned Northern Forum have on Thursday, in Kaduna State, frowned at the recent directive which had been made by the Central Bank Governor, to redesign some of the naira notes effective from December 15, 2022.
Africa Daily News, New York recalls that CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, made the announcement on Wednesday.
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The group’s spokesman, Abdulsalam Kazeem had in a statement on Wednesday, in Kaduna, faulted the decision.
He said, “The attention of the leadership of Concerned Northern Forum has been called to a press conference organised by the current Central Bank governor in Abuja, where he stated that (the CBN) has redesigned the N200, N500 and N1000 naira notes, effective December 15, 2022.
“This is coming at a period when we are borrowing to fund significant parts of our annual budget and another significant part of the borrowing goes to debt servicing and yet the only solution the apex bank could offer is to redesign our currency.” He said
“We are concerned as representatives of our people and region. If we may ask: will the new design make our currency to gain value at the exchange rate market? Will it add value to the standard of living of the citizenry of our region and the nation at large? These are some questions begging for immediate answers.
“To set the record straight, look at the current exchange rate of a Naira to a dollar or pounds and you will agree with us that our currency has lost its value completely and what we need now are serious economic policies that will strengthen our Naira against dollar and pounds and anything short of this is unacceptable by us. Because we believe this would inflict more against the value of our revered naira.
“The decision to redesign the Naira is obviously to empower some certain individuals, consultants or contractors who are desperate to make something before the end of the current administration. This idea should be rejected by all and sundry at any rate, since it’s not in the interest of the nation and it will add no value to the current multiple economic challenges the nation is facing due to bad economic policies of the current central bank governor,” he said.
He also added that redesigning of the said naira notes will only cost the nation huge sums of money at the expense of taxpayers.
