CBN SPENDS N800BN ON CURRENCY PRODUCTION, DESTRUCTION

The Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria, Aisha Ahmad, has disclosed that the amount spent on maintaining the naira has increased by N10bn annually.

The deputy Governor who revealed this on Friday during her appearance before the House of Representatives to defend CBN’s new cash withdrawal limits policy, attributed over 90 per cent of currency management costs to banknote production.

A former CBN deputy governor, Dr Kingsley Moghalu, had earlier disclosed that the apex bank spends about N150bn annually to maintain the naira.

He stated that the amount was used to produce, store, transport, protect and destroy the naira notes every year.

Going by the CBN Deputy Governor’s diclosure of N10bn increase, the apex bank has spent N800bn between 2017 and 2021 on the production, storage, transportation and destruction of the currency.

In her presentation, Ahmad noted that currency management was a key function of the apex bank as enshrined in Section 2(b) of the CBN Act, 2007, noting that the integrity of the currency and efficient supply of banknotes were indicators of a performing central bank, especially in predominantly cash-based economies such as Nigeria.