The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it will continue to reassess the volume of currency in circulation (CIC) to avoid a repeat of what happened before its naira redesign programme kicked off.
This came as cash scarcity continued to ease off as banks in Lagos continued from where they left off at the weekend by dispensing cash to their customers. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while fielding questions from newsmen during the 290th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja recently, the CBN remains committed to ensuring a stable financial system.
He said, “Before the Naira redesign, there was about N3.23 trillion in circulation, out of which N500 billion was held in the banking system and N2.73 trillion held outside the banking vaults.
The currency in circulation (CIC) is roughly close to N1 trillion and the CBN will continue to pump the newly redesigned notes into the economy. Although we need to checkmate the optimal level of CIC in relation to the amount of cash the banks have in their vaults so that we ensure we put in place measures that we do not have people or banks hoarding notes for their personal use.
