CBN To Roll Out N5000 Note In March 2014

The Central Bank of Nigeria bank disclosed at the weekend that it would soon conclude plans to produce and roll out N5000 bills, a project which was initially abandoned due to its rejection by Nigerians.

Deputy Governor of CBN, Tunde Lemo, who disclosed this while speaking to journalists at the NIBSS 20th anniversary conference held in Lagos, said in one to two months from now, the N5000 notes would be in circulation.

According to him:" We only stopped the project due to the low level of understanding of its benefits among Nigerians, but we now plan to educate the people about the importance of thenotes to our economy before we eventually launch it".

He added that Nigerians would soon see the notes in circulation and start to enjoy its benefits.

Speaking on the cashless initiative, Lemo noted that it has been a great success within the experimented states, stressing that the apex bank has deployed 120,000 Point of Sale (PoS) Machines across the states where cashless policy is being experimented in Nigeria.

He frowned at reports that 70 percent of the PoS deployed within the country are ineffective, explaining that a lot of things could have caused the ineffectiveness".

Similarly Director, Banking and Payment Systems, CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, who was also a speaker at the conference, noted that the apex bank's cashless initiative has aided the development of Nigeria.

He stressed that banks and customers now enjoy the easy flow of transactions within the banks.

He, however, noted that the Nigeria payments system, in the last two decades, has witnessed significant technological advancement, due to the operations of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement (NIBSS) Plc.

The changes were propelled by transformations in the general financial system occasioned principally by improvements in global economic indicators, technology as well as improvement in human capital capacity and knowledge.

Meanwhile funds transfer though the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS)'s Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system hit an all time high of N11.63 trillion in 24.34million transactions between January and October this year.

Transactions over NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) which channels include bank branches, internet banking and mobile banking within the same period was valued at N8.16trillon in 12.53million volume of transactions. A report released by NIBSS disclosed that the NEFT transactions allow for a maximum of 24 hours for the beneficiary to get value while NIP transactions are done instantly.
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