Naira redesign | Zikoko!

Ever since CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, introduced the naira redesign policy in November 2022, it has brought nothing but chaos.

From a naira scarcity that impoverished millions of Nigerians to protests that led to the loss of lives and property.

The latest failure in the policy to rear its head is an inflation rate of 21.91%, which is the highest rate Nigeria has experienced in 18 years.

This comes off as strange however because there hasn’t been any money in circulation in the last two months. Isn’t there supposed to be a reduction in inflation when there’s hardly any cash in circulation?

RECOMMENDED: Why Are The New Naira Banknotes So Scarce?

How bad was the inflation and what is the government’s response to this? Let’s dig in:

The Inflation

In February, inflation was mostly caused by a rise in the prices of food, as it rose to 24.35 per cent year-on-year.

Food was more expensive in Kwara as food inflation hit 29.51 per cent, Imo (27.47 per cent), and Lagos (27.42 per cent).

It was lowest in Sokoto (18.54 per cent), Jigawa (19.67 per cent), and Yobe (21.89 per cent).

It was also disclosed that increase in the price of bread, cereal, rent, potatoes, yam, tubers, vegetables, and meat drove inflation up in February.

What was the CBN’s response?

It was one of defence. Emefiele claimed that the recent monetary policy decisions are working. According to him, “We have started to see inflation trending downwards and exchange rates relatively stable.”

Of course, the National Bureau of Statistics has proven that to be false.

But let’s hear from the Research analyst at Atlas Portfolios Limited, Olaide Baanu to tell us about this.

What does the expert say?

According to Baanu “The increase recorded can be attributed to the ongoing cash crunch, as some vendors now require extra charges for payments.”

The food inflation expanded by three base points to 24.35 per cent year-on-year following the cash crunch policy and dry-season effect as Nigerians search for cash to purchase scarce staple foods (like meat, tubers, vegetables, etc.) from farmers.”

What happens next?

Right now, CBN has granted citizens permission to make use of the old naira notes as legal tender, but would this reduce inflation? Would it be higher than before?

Let’s wait and see.

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Chiamaka Dike

March 17, 2023

Citizen

CBN, inflation, Naira redesign
To the joy of many Nigerians, on March 3, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the old Naira notes should remain Nigeria’s legal tender till December 31, 2023.

Nigerians to Meffy

Despite the court ruling, it wasn’t until March 13, 2023, that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released a statement directing commercial banks to the court. The statement also reaffirmed that the old Naira notes will remain the legal tender till December 31, 2023.

This hopefully marks the end of Nigeria’s long-drawn war with Naira scarcity. But, how did this problem start in the first place?

October 2022

On October 26, 2022, the CBN governor, Godwin “Meffy” Emefiele, announced plans to redesign the ₦200, ₦500 and ₦1000 notes. He also said they would begin circulating from December 15, 2022, and become the legal tender on January 31, 2023.

His reason for the Naira redesign was to implement a cashless economy, boost our economy and combat hoarding, terrorists and kidnappers.

November 2022

On November 23, 2023, President Buhari unveiled the new Naira notes at a state house meeting in Abuja. However, to the disappointment of many, it seemed like a waste of public funds as the new notes looked like they were simply passed through a Snapchat filter.

January 2023

January showed that although it was a new year, Nigeria had the same old problems. Because despite the announcement of the new notes being in circulation from December 15, many people were still yet to see them. Banks still gave out the old Naira over the counter, and it was like ATMs had no idea new banknotes existed.

The CBN launched a cash swap programme on January 23, 2023, across all local governments to allow for the easy exchange of old banknotes for new ones. Still, as the deadline inched closer, it became more and more evident that an extension would be needed. And Meffy finally decided to extend the deadline by ten days to February 10, 2023.

February 2023

Following this extension, Nigerians began to feel the full effect of the Naira scarcity; crowds at banks and queues at ATMs became the order of the day. People started sleeping at ATM galleries, and POS agents began to charge arms and legs as withdrawal charges.

As expected, tensions began to rise, and it wasn’t long before protests and pockets of violence started happening around the country. Banks were burnt, and the staff wasn’t spared; some had to jump fences to escape.

Zenith bank staff fleeing through the back fence. This is the situation APC put us in this country. Atiku, please come. pic.twitter.com/7cY21mrZJy
— Senator Dino Melaye. (SDM) (@_dinomelaye) February 6, 2023

On February 3, 2023, three states, Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, sued the federal government at the Supreme Court over implementing the new naira policy. On February 8, 2023, the Supreme Court adjourned the case to February 15, 2023, and banned the CBN from implementing the February 10 deadline.

Many Nigerians were hopeful that on February 15, 2023, the court would finally give a ruling that would stop the madness created by the Naira scarcity, but unfortunately, the court was adjourned again to February 22, 2023.

And on February 16, 2023, in what seemed like blatant disobedience to the Supreme Court’s order, President Buhari approved the continued use of just the old ₦200 notes till April 10, 2023. But this had little to no effect on the Naira scarcity problem as the old ₦200 banknotes comprised only 9.19 per cent of Nigeria’s currency volume.

When the D-Day finally came on February 22, 2023, much to many Nigerians’ chagrin, the court again adjourned the case for judgment on March 3, 2023.

Also read: What Has the Naira Scarcity Cost Nigerians?

March 2023

At this point, many Nigerians had resigned to never seeing the Naira banknotes again. However, it surprisingly ended in praise when on March 3, the Supreme Court legalised the old banknotes till December 31, 2023.

Meffy’s Naira redesign has been a bad dream for many Nigerians that we hopefully never see a repeat of.

Tolu Omotesho

March 14, 2023

Citizen

CBN, Meffy, Naira redesign, Supreme Court
In these stressful times, you need to do whatever it takes to find cash. Even if that means seducing a POS agent. Follow these steps to date one and have your cash problems solved today.

Break up with your current partner

Does your current partner have cash? If they don’t, what are you people doing together? Break up with them and look for someone who can add value to your life.

Spend all your cash

You can’t take this seriously if you’re not truly motivated. Spend that last ₦500 in your hand so you know you have no choice but to find cash somewhere else.

Find a POS attendant with plenty cash

Don’t waste your time on a POS attendant who doesn’t have cash. You must stay focused on the goal at all times. What’s the use of a POS attendant who doesn’t have plenty cash?

Cook food for them

The way to any human being’s heart is through their stomach — even though it’s their pocket you’re trying to get to. Even spirits at the T-junction accept food as payment for good fortune.

Or get them fuel

Even if they have cash, fuel scarcity is still stressing them out. Bringing them fuel is the most romantic thing you can do for a POS attendant in a time like this.

Call them sweet names

There’s no need to ask anybody out. There are more pressing matters at hand. Just start calling them “baby” every day and showing up at their place with food or fuel. Boom, you’re in a relationship.

Start dropping hints

Send them random photos of new naira notes captioned “Thinking about you”. You can also ask them silly questions like, “If you were a naira note, which one would you be?” Anything to hint that you didn’t come here to play; you’re here for business.

If nothing works, carry gun

If they’re forming ignorance, negotiate with them at gunpoint so they know this is a purely transactional relationship and they can’t be hiding cash. Desperate times require desperate measures.

NEXT READ: What Happens When You Can’t Withdraw Cash for Two Weeks Straight?

Sheriff Alimi

February 8, 2023

Inside Life

cash, naira, Naira redesign
It’s not a secret that Nigeria is a telenovela series, with twists, mysteries and turns at almost every point. Unfortunately, these plot twists never bring Nigerians the happy endings we want and at this point we’re tired of our character development arc.

On October 26, 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced its plans to redesign the naira to combat counterfeiting and manage inflation. Nigerians weren’t too pleased by the news and even the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, didn’t like it. But at least we had hopes that maybe the makeover would be impressive.

Okay, what happened next?

When President Buhari unveiled the new notes on November 23, 2022, let’s just say the designs looked… interesting.

Is it just us or do they look like someone’s tie and dye project?

What did Nigerians say?

Nigerians were more disappointed than outraged, as these new notes looked like someone ran them through Snapchat filters.

During an interview on Channels Television, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, claimed the CBN spent about ₦218 billion on the new designs.

While we can’t say how accurate Sowore’s figures are, we know producing these new banknotes must be expensive. But could this money have been spent better? Let’s look at some alternatives.

ASUU

There’s a saying amongst federal university students that, “Every generation experiences an ASUU strike.” It’s funny until you wake up one day and realise you’ve been in 100 level for two years. Just this year alone, federal universities were on strike for eight months. If some of the redesign fund was injected into the education sector, we’d have a better system.

Flood victims

Climate change is ruining the environment, and Nigeria is already feeling the brunt of it. This year, we faced one of the worst flooding disasters in our history, with over 600 deaths and 1.3 million people displaced. Unfortunately, the federal government’s response to this has been underwhelming. The victims would have appreciated some of the money the government used to redesign the banknotes.

Fix bad roads

“I’m going to repair bad roads,” has become a mantra for politicians. But once they get into power, they wash their hands off their campaign promises and pick them up four years later for another campaign.

We can’t say we’re shocked at the government’s decisions so far. We can only hope that with the coming 2023 elections, we’ll vote for people who can address the challenges Nigerians really care about.

Tolu Omotesho

November 24, 2022

Citizen

ASUU, Buhari, Flood Victims, Fund, naira, Naira redesign, Nigeria, Nigerians, Politicians
Nearly a month after announcing the plan to give naira banknotes a makeover, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin “Meffy” Emefiele, gleamed with pride when they unveiled the new ₦‎200, ₦500, and ₦1,000 notes on November 23, 2022.

Naturally, the redesigned notes were bound to stir reactions and Nigerians haven’t disappointed since the president launched them.

The "redesigned" naira banknotes have been unveiled and they look like the designer turned on the Snapchat filter and called it a day.

What are your first thoughts? pic.twitter.com/Zj00sWiAOF
— Citizen by Zikoko (@ZikokoCitizen) November 23, 2022

We have some very important questions Meffy needs to answer.

Who exactly redesigned these notes??

The only thing the designer did was to change the colours of the old notes and we’re a little bit confused. We want to know who’s responsible.

We just want to talk

What’s the real occupation of the designer?

We’ve seen these new notes and we can only assume it’s the tie-and-dye project of a secondary school student or a makeup artist experimenting with new colours.

How much will this redesign cost taxpayers?

Printing money is expensive and Nigeria spent about ₦281 billion on new notes between 2016 and 2022.

We need to know how much the CBN spent on this ~~Snapchat~~ makeover and how much the designer collected without conscience.

How much time did this even take?

Now that we think about it, it’s not a surprise the CBN fast tracked the unveiling date of the notes. We can clearly see the designer spent 10 minutes to find the right filter and submitted to Meffy for approval.

It’s the definition of soft work

Is this intentional?

Nigerians love to drip and display their wealth but these new notes are about to cramp our style. If Meffy’s plan to fight inflation is to release these ugly notes to stop Nigerians from having too much of it in circulation, then he’s an evil genius because it’s working.

Chiamaka Dike

November 23, 2022

Citizen

CBN, Emefiele, naira, Naira redesign, New Naira, Nigeria, Nigerians
Ever since the Central Bank Governor (CBN) Godwin “Meffy” Emefiele decided to dress up and redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes, things have been looking scary for the naira, with its continuous fall and intense dollar scarcity.

Despite the Finance minister having zero ideas on the matter, Meffy isn’t turning back on his plans to release the new naira designs on December 15, 2022. Here are three things we at Citizen would love to see (or not see) with the new naira notes:

A picture of the #EndSARS victims

Remembering the victims of #EndSARS and the Lekki Toll Gate massacre by symbolically placing them on the nation’s currency will serve as a true mark of honor to our fallen heroes.

But wait, our government doesn’t acknowledge anyone was killed at the toll gate, so that may be a lost cause. Fingers crossed anyway.

Some more Nigerian heroines

We are tired of seeing great Nigerian women relegated to the back of the naira notes.

What happened to women like Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti, Queen Amina, Margaret Ekpo, and the rest of them? They too, need to stand out boldly at the front of the naira notes like the men.

More pop culture icons

Have you ever reasoned that the lack of Nigerian pop culture icons may be what is making our naira fall?

Maybe if we are always seeing Burna Boy and Asake on our naira notes every day, we may decide to thrash dollar notes in the bin and appreciate our currency more.

Have any more ideas on what you wish to see on the Naira? Let us know.

Chiamaka Dike

November 7, 2022

Citizen

CBN, naira, Naira redesign, Nigeria, Nigerians