Concern Northern Forum faults CBN Governor On redesignation of Naira notes
By Femi Mustapha
A Group under the auspices of Concern Northern Forum has said the recent statement credited to the Governor Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) Mr Godwin Emefiele that he has redesigned the #200, #500 and #1000 Naira notes, effective from December 15, 2022.
The Spokeperson of the Group Comrade Abdulsalam Moh’d Kazeem stated this in a statement made available to the media in Kaduna yesterday.
The Group stated that the CBN Governor statement is nothing but a sign of incompetency, noting that the economy is down and Naira has depreciated to the minimal value and all the Leadership of Central Bank of Nigeria could offer us as a solution to the above is to redesign our currency.
The Group further stated that redesigning of the said currency will only cost the nation huge sums of money at the expense of taxpayers.
” This is coming at a period when we are borrowing to fund significant parts of our annual budget and another significant parts of the borrowing goes to debt services and yet the only solution the apex bank could offer is to redesign our currency, indeed, Mr Godwin Emefiele and his entire team has completely run out of ideas and now is the time to show them the exit gate.
“We are concerned representative of our people and region, if we may ask; will the new design makes our currency to gain value in the exchange rate market? Will it add value to the standard of living of the citizenry of our region and the nation at large?
“These are some questions begging for immediate answers! If no satisfactory answers are provided (as we already expect none) for the above questions, the apex bank should immediately stop the process of the new design or else it will be resisted by us in collaboration with other concern civil society organisations from within and outside our region.
“We therefore made the following demands: immediate suspension of the whole process of the new naira design, immediate sack of Mr Godwin Emefele and his team, prosecution of those behind this devilish ideal” the statement reads