We Don’t Have Capacity To Print New Notes – Emefiele

Amidst the cash crisis bedevilling the country and the expectations of Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari would resolve the matter in seven days as promised, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said the apex bank does not have the capacity to print adequate new naira notes.

Emefiele made the disclosure on Friday when he briefed the emergency meeting of the National Council of State.

On Friday, Mr Emefiele told the leaders that the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (The Mint), suffers capacity constraints, resulting in the failure to print adequate new notes to replace the old N200, N500 and 1,000 notes.

“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.

“The Mint had received CBN’s request to print 70million copies of the new notes, totalling N126billion to be pumped into circulation by today (yesterday), The Mint doesn’t have the capacity,”

Meanwhile, Mr Buhari was non-committal at the meeting and barely spoke, the source added. He left the meeting as the time for the Muslim’s Jummah prayer drew close and his deputy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, took over.

Osinbajo said the president would take a decision.

Meanwhile, seven days after President Muhammadu Buhari promised to address the cash crisis that hit the country following the naira redesign and old notes swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the new and old naira notes have remained elusive.

Read also: New naira: Confusion deepens as CBN deadline ends today

advised him to postpone the deadline, which he refused.

“It is inexcusable that President Buhari continues to turn a blind eye while the country burns due to the unpopular naira redesign policy, which is seriously affecting the health of the economy and sending hundreds of citizens to premature graves on a daily basis,” Zikirullahi said.

 Petty traders in dilemma over old naira notes in Jos

Petty traders in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, were Friday thrown into confusion on whether or not to accept old naira notes from their customers as February 10, the deadline by the CBN on the collection of old naira notes.

The traders said they were rejecting the old notes in order not to lose their capital.

The confusion by the traders began a day before the February 10 deadline announced by the CBN governor, when he said people should use the opportunity to deposit their old naira notes before the expiration of the date.

Jamilu Abubakar said, “Honestly, we are in a difficult situation. When I came out in the morning I refused to collect the old notes from my customers, but I later started collecting it when I listened to the news on the issue. But even with that, we don’t have a clear direction on the naira notes. Today, the federal government would say something and comes out to say another thing tomorrow.”

Lawn Sarkinpawa, another Jos trader said, “It is true that people have been thrown into confusion.”