This country never ceases to amaze me, for some of you that haven’t heard the jist yet, I don’t even know where to start from. In 2007, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adopted the use of polymer notes for lower denomination of naira notes. And this was introduced by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo who was then the CBN governor.
Recently the bank has hinted that they have plans of
scraping the polymer notes because they fade easily despite earlier test proving
their viability against the paper notes. But during the weekend the CBN Deputy
Governor, Mr Tunde Lemo in an interview maintained that the change would not
cost any additional money despite economic critics arguing that the huge
capital outlay of such a task will pose a strain on the nation’s economy.
In 2006 some Australian detectives started investigations on
how some top Nigerian officials were paid about N750 million by Australian
polymer company Securency to secure the contract to supply about 1.9billion
pieces of polymer notes till date. I just wonder why we have to change back to
the paper notes with the excuse that the polymer notes are ineffective
meanwhile about 18 countries are adopting the polymer notes including the likes
of Qatar, Swaziland, Tonga, United Arab Emirates etc. And also the bank of England had put out a
tender for the introduction of polymer notes in the UK.
Moreover, even if the
polymer notes are not that reliable, how come it took the CBN 6years to
discover this even with all the test carried out on the notes? And why is it
that it’s only in Nigeria we hear that the polymer notes are ineffective even
when so many other countries have adopting the technology and a lot more are
still planning on adopting it? Why do we still have to print our currencies
outside the country? Is it that our currency printing company cannot cope with
our currency consumptions?
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