Jutha Gupah, Maiduguri
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has accused some politicians for hoarding the redesigned new naira notes for the 2023 general elections.
Emefiele raised the alarm, yesterday (Wednesday), in Abuja, while briefing members of the diplomatic Community on the cashless policy of the apex bank.
He lamented that politicians’ mop-up of billions of new notes; has led to the “chaotic long queues” at banking halls and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
According to him; “The CBN has noticed that some politicians are buying the new notes and hoard them for political purposes.”
He told the diplomatic community that there was high tension which triggered the increased agitations of leaders, instead of calming the aggrieved people over the scarcity of new notes
Emefiele attributed the agitations to a sponsored propaganda or an exaggeration of reality on the distribution of notes.
Besides, he added: “No doubts, there are pockets of pressure in some areas. We are working hard to shift resources to those areas in order to ease the tension.”
On the benefits of the currency redesign policy, he said that inflation has started to fall across the country.
Citing the data from market sources, he said: “The price of a ram has fallen from N75,000 to N50,000 since the cashless policy was introduced.
“The policy is also expected to cause deflation in the market,” he said, noting that less cash holdings also reduce currency outside banks.
“This also reduces the circulation of cash among the people in the economy,” he declared.
Continued; “The accompanying decline in money supply will slow down the pace of inflation from rising.
“We’ve started to witness inflation trending downwards, following general price stability in various markets including for goods and financial products,” he said.
Analysis also indicated that an effective implementation of the policy could reduce four percentage points of inflation.
He assured that the cashless policy could slow down inflation to 18 per cent in the first half of 2023
“Data from our market sources indicate that the prices of grains and key staples in Suleja and Lambata markets are on the downward trend since the beginning of the policy,” he said.
He added that the market price for soya beans; has dropped from N30, 000 to N22, 000 a bag, while maize is sold for N16, 000 instead of N18, 000 a bag.
Other prices fall, he added, including bulls and other livestock sold at N25, 000 to N70, 000 less than their previous market prices.
End.
