Business
N5,000 Note: Senate Explains ‘Stop Action’ Order
The Senate has ordered Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop the planned introduction
of the controversial N5,000 banknote until stakeholders in the polity are
consulted and agreements reached.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Currency,
Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Bassey Otu (PDP, Cross
Rivers) stated this at a press conference in Abuja.
He further said:
“I believe that a project of this nature requires
parliamentary approval because there are numerous and fiscal implications on
the entire economy.
“The CBN in 2008 and 2009 came up with a proposal to
re-denominate the currency, that was even to take off the zeroes.
This was just 2008 and 2009 and here we are in 2012 we have
seeing a kind of policy somersault even though we understand the dynamics of
the sector very well. I believe that we have to be well briefed on this.
“Also in 2005, the CBN undertook a major currency restructuring which ran into billions of
Naira. Till date, a proper value has not been done to know it’s costs to the
Nigerian taxpayers and the extent of the benefits and in that 2005 coinage, I
think it did not work at all because both the goldsmith
and the blacksmith converted the coins to moulding bangles,
earrings and so on etc.
“The CBN must be very careful in order not to send a wrong
signal or message to households, domestic sector and even the external ones
that the Nigerian currency is valueless, which I believe it is definitely not,
and that for every unit of value they need to carry a large quantity of cash.
“we believe that the coinage works very well where there is infrastructure to
take it like a parking where you go and put it etc. We have not developed that
real basic infrastructure and those coins most of them are nowhere really to be
found.
“The CBN will also have to prove that the policy is not a
clear contradiction or at variance with cashless society, which they are even
yet to justify and whether this is the popular economic way to go.
“As a committee we should do our work, this morning there is
a burning issue that is going on in our country and there is need for us; as a
committee to comment on this topical issue. I am the chairman of the senate
committee on banking, currency and other financial institutions. We have also
read in the papers just like you about the currency restructuring that the CBN
embarked on.
“So, we are asking and we are sending a letter to them to
stop all further actions on this until the senate of the federal Republic is
properly briefed”