NEW NAIRA NOTES COMING SOON - CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said that Nigerians should
expect a new generation of naira notes before the second quarter of 2014.
Deputy Governor, Operations, Mr Tunde Lemo, said...
the apex bank had
earlier announced its decision to move the local currency from polymer
back to paper, but disclosed that all the notes in circulation would
not be withdrawn at the same time.
"Nigerians will be having new generation notes in paper in the next
few months. We will wait until the notes wear tear. When they wear,
and they travel back to Central Bank, of course they will be
re-issued," he stated.
According to him, the life cycle of a note in Nigeria is between six
months and a year and if CBN took that decision six months ago, "I
reckon that in the next three to six months, you will begin to see
these denominations re-appear in paper."
He said that, the Central Bank would have started producing the lower
denomination notes in paper by the middle of last year, but due to
logistics challenges, the plan was not accomplished.
"My plea is that Nigerians should be patient with us. It wasn't the
fault of the CBN; it is just because we have to go back to the drawing
board. We will correct that in the course of the year. Polymer
certainly will be phased out. In fact, no new note is being printed in
polymer now," said Lemo.
On the scarcity of the lower denomination notes, Lemo blamed inflation
and commercial banks for what he called "low transactionary value" and
"poor circulation," respectively.
"For the lower denomination, well, I think the banks are really the
ones that are really not allowing the lower denomination in
circulation, largely, because of the cost and carrying value.
"Most people don't require small denomination. But for buying things
in the market, if you look at the veracity, you find out that it is
the people that are losing interest because of its bulkiness and
inflation," he said.
Lemo said this should be done to ensure effective protection of the
currency from abuse.