The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, accused some politicians of hoarding the redesigned naira notes.
The governor said the mop-up of notes by politicians has contributed to the lengthy queues at banking halls and automated teller machines (ATMs) as citizens struggle to lay their hands on the new naira.
Emefiele made the remarks while briefing the diplomatic community on recent monetary policy decisions of the CBN on Tuesday in Abuja.
“The CBN has also noticed that some politicians are buying the new notes and storing them for political purposes,” he said.
The CBN boss said there was tremendous tension and elevated agitation by leaders who should be calming the frayed nerves of the citizens.
“We believe that a large proportion of these agitations are staged and sponsored propagandas or an exaggeration of the reality,” he said.
“No doubt that there are pockets of pressures in some areas, the CBN is working hard to shift resources to those areas in order to ease the tension.”
-Advertisement-
Speaking on the benefits of the currency redesign policy, the governor said inflation has started to reduce in the country.
Citing data from market sources, he said the price of ram has decreased from N75,000 to N50,000 since the policy was introduced.
“The policy is typically expected to cause deflation in the market as less cash holding reduces currency outside banks and retards money circulation,” Emefiele said.
“The accompanying decline in money supply will thus slow the pace of inflation.
READ ALSO: BREAKING: Old naira notes remain legal tender – Supreme Court
“As you can see, we have started to witness inflation trending downwards, following general price stability in almost all genres of markets including for goods and financial products.
“For instance, analysis shows that effective implementation of the policy could by itself scrape four percentage points off the current level of inflation as it steadily slows the inflation rate to about 18.0 percent by mid-2023.
“This is quite achievable, as data from our market sources indicate that the prices of grains and key staples, around Suleja and Lambata markets for instance, have generally been on a downward trend since the beginning of the policy.
“The price for soya beans has dropped from N30,000 to N22,000. Maize from N18,000 to N16,000. The price of a bull fell from N400,000 to N330,000 and ram from N75,000 to N50,000.”
We do everything possible to supply quality news and information to all our valuable readers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
-Advertisement-
-Want to get the news as it breaks?-
