Beginning from the middle of this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will stop printing currencies in polymer, and the N5, N10, N20 and the N50 notes would be printed in paper form.
Deputy Governor of CBN, Mr. Tunde Lemo disclosed this on Sunday in Washington, saying it has been noticed that polymer notes fade easily.
Speaking at the ongoing Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF, Lemo said: “By middle of the year, we will start to produce the second generation of lower denomination notes, now in paper not in polymer.
“My plea is that Nigerians should exercise patience with us. It wasn’t the fault of CBN; it was just because we had to go back to the drawing board to rethink ‘Project Cure’ in the light of the wish of the public that we should not go ahead with the N5000 notes and lower denomination. We will correct that in the course of the year. Polymer certainly will be phased out. In fact, we are phasing out polymer. No new note is being printed in polymer now.”
Attempting to absolve the CBN of any blame in the earlier printing of polymer notes, he said the organisation had carried out a research which showed that the polymer notes last longer than ordinary paper notes.
“However, with the benefit of hindsight, we probably should not have dumped polymer because, yes, the substrate lasts longer, but the in-consubstrate began to fade; we didn’t realise that at the time of introduction.
“So, part of ‘Project cure’ was actually to move away from polymer substrate to paper, unfortunately we had a push-back because of the issues around N5,000 note and coins. The entire programme was put in abeyance, otherwise by now we should have stopped producing polymer.”
Lemo said the CBN would start receiving the fresh notes from June, as the contract for their printing had been awarded to a foreign firm. He said the Nigerian Printing and Minting Company could not handle the printing because it lacked the capacity.
Lamenting that despite the heavy campaign, Nigerians have continued to abuse the naira, he revealed that CBN is encouraging the Police to step up its surveillance in order to reduce the criminal act.
“I still go to parties and see people spraying money, stepping on money,” he said. “I see touts distributing mint-fresh money that should go to customers. Unfortunately, CBN is not a law enforcement institution; we left that in the hands of the law enforcement institutions and that has not kicked in.”
