Senate orders CBN to suspend the proposed N5,000 notes

The Senate warned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to, as a matter of urgency, stop his proposed introduction of N5,000 denomination.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, said that it had become imperative for Senate to put a halt to the new CBN arrangement because a project of this kind required parliamentary approval, adding that the upper legislative chamber was never briefed prior to the announcement of the soon-to-be introduced note.

“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. I believe that a project of this nature requires parliamentary approval because there are numerous and fiscal implications on the entire economy,” Senator Otu said.

The CBN governor had on Thursday, last week, announced the introduction of a new currency series where the existing denominations of N50, N100, N200, N500 and N1,000 will be redesigned and a new note of N5,000 introduced.

According to Sanusi, the front face of the new highest denomination will be adorned with the pictures of three women activists – late Margaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Kuti and Hajiya Gambo Sawaba, while the back side would have the National Assembly structure.

Speaking further, Senator Otu warned the CBN to be very careful in taking some decisions that would worsen the nation’s economy and send wrong signal that Nigeria’s currency was valueless. He stressed that the country did not deserve this policy since the nation was not in a major crisis.

According to him, “this type of action is only taken where there is a major crisis and 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.