Naira hoarders under pressure as sacks of old notes discovered warehouse

The move by the Central Bank of Nigeria to redesign some naira notes have piled pressure on currency hoarders as Nigerians discovered heaps of sacks containing spoilt naira notes dumped in a warehouse at a riverside in Benue State.

In the viral video hordes of residents in the area rushed to the scene where the notes, kept in sacks, have defaced beyond repairs.

This comes as CBN prepares to introduce new naira notes into circulation on December 15, 2022. CBN policy piles pressure on currency hoarders.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has on October 26, 2022, stated that it is embarking on redesigning the naira notes because about 80 per cent of the money in circulation is outside the banking system.

The bank stated that it is redesigning N200. N500 and N1000 notes. According to the CBN, it has received over N1 trillion of old notes and deposited the same amount with the banks.

READ ALSO: Old Naira notes: CBN rules out extension of January 31 deadline

The CBN, which reduced withdrawal limits to N100,000 weekly for individuals and N500,000 for corporate bodies, have been under pressure from politicians to rethink the policy as it would affect Nigerians.

The move by the CBN has led to currency hoarders releasing old naira notes in their possession.

Recently, a truck allegedly loaded with defaced N1,000 notes was seen heading from the north..

The latest discovery of spoilt naira notes has revealed how much under pressure hoarders have been as Nigeria’s apex bank tightens its fiscal and monetary policy.

According to people in the video, the broken-down truck is the third they had seen loaded with Nigerian currencies looking for where to offload them.