E- COPY (8-14) January 2018 cover pgg-compressed | Page 6

MONEY & CAPITAL
Posers over dirty Naira notes in circulation
6
Monday, January 8 - 14, 2018
Following the rising number of dirty, mutilated Naira notes in circulation, Nigerians and other stakeholders are blaming the
commercial banks for the ugly trend and have called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to intervene, NIYI JACOBS reports.
T
he issue of mutilated
Naira currently in
circulation in the
country, has become a matter
of concern for many, as the
dirty notes are mostly rejected
by many traders and
transporters across the
country.
A bank customer and
lawyer who preferred
anonymity expressed worries
that the alarming quantity of
dirty/mutilated currency
notes in circulation had
become a national
embarrassment.
He added that banks issue
torn, mutilated and
unhygienic currency notes
through Automated Teller
Machines (ATM), and across
the counter.
Specifically, he said, “I
observe that in spite of arrest
and subsequent prosecution
of the culprits, there is still a
cartel in CBN and commercial
banks, which makes brisk
business recycling old naira
notes meant for destruction.
Such greedy bank officials
enrich their bank accounts,
according to him, acquiring
properties through these
illegal proceeds by converting
the equivalent of the mutilated
notes into their accounts and
selling printed mint, meant
for customers, to touts and
hawkers.
“Section 21(4) of the CBN
Act of 2007 makes it a
punishable offence for any
person to hawk, sell or trade in
naira notes, coins or any other
issued by the apex bank,” he
said.
The legal practitioner
stressed that most of the
mutilated currency notes in
circulation harboured
pathogenic microorganisms
hazardous to human health.
He said that the mutilated
notes could cause infectious
diseases such as diarrhea,
food poisoning and
respiratory problems as they
circulate.
Another customer with one
of the new generation banks,
Mr Jude Okon, told National
Business that the bulk of naira
notes in circulation are so bad.
According to him, “it is
worse that when they are given
to you as balance (change),
you prefer to reject them
because spending such notes
becomes a Herculean task.”
Okon said most of the bad
notes are already torn into
unrecognizable pieces and the
amount CBN charges
commercial banks is too small
to warrant such national
embarrassment.
In his words: “Some of
them can compare to papers
fit for the dustbin or pit toilet.
The fact that they are still
being exchanged as legal
tender, marvels not a few
Nigerians. In fact, they look to
me as a ready source of
transmitting diseases.”
While calling on the CBN to
find ways of taking them off
circulation, Okon said the
shocking thing he discovered
is that commercial banks
tellers are using “cello tape” to
fix some of the bad naira
notes.
“Do you know what? I
apply cello tape every now and
then and just last Sunday, I
still did it for a naira note that
was so bad. CBN should
simply do something about
the problem; it is simply
making a bad statement about
us as a nation,” he lamented.
More worrisome, a bank
customer, Mr Segun Akinlade,
also complained that some
banks are rejecting the
mutilated notes even when the
numbers and every other
information on the naira notes
are still visible.
According to her, “each
time I take money to the bank,
they will collect the good notes
and reject the sorted,
mutilated ones. They will tell
me that I should take it to First
Bank where it will be accepted.
I have experienced this with a
particular branch of United
Bank for Africa and Wema
Bank.”
A financial analyst, Kirk
Leigh, regretted that when old
worn-out notes are being
surreptitiously channeled back
into the system, there are no
records of the 'transactions'
and the immediate implication
is that the CBN has an
inaccurate, amount of
currency in circulation and
therefore, has no control of
aspects of monetary policy
couched on fractional banking
and interes