Three years since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the former governor Professor Charles Soludo introduced the polymer N20 note, the apex bank will roll out new N50, N10 and N5 polymer currency notes this month. New CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi will be interacting with the media to flag off the public sensitization exercise preparatory to the formal launch of the new notes later in the month.
The last time CBN rolled out new currency notes and coins was on February 28, 2007, when it introduced the new 5 naira, 10 naira, 20 naira and 50 naira notes as well as 50 kobo, 1 naira and 2 naira coins. Of those, only the N20 “Muri” note was polymer.
Key features of the new notes include their small size, pictures of some past Nigerian heroes including the famous female porter Hajiya Ladi Kwali, bold numbering, map of Nigeria, the national colors and the denominations written in the three major languages of Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba.
The fifty kobo, one naira and two naira coins have a dimension 24.50mm, 24.50mm and 27.50mm in diameter respectively with an average weight of 5.50gm, 5.50gm and 12.00gm respectively. They were made of nickel and gold materials.
The decimal currency naira and kobo system itself was introduced by CBN in 1973, replacing the old Imperial Pound and Shillings. At the time, half kobo, one kobo, five kobo, 10 kobo and 20 kobo coins were issued, in addition to 50 kobo, 1, 5 and 10 naira notes. The 50 kobo notes were last issued in 1989. In 1991, 50 naira notes were issued, followed by 100 naira notes in 1999, 200 naira notes in 2000, 500 naira notes in 2001 and 1000 naira on October 12, 2005.
Meanwhile, the CBN governor together with CBN-appointed managing directors of the five troubled banks would be visiting the Nigeria Stock Exchange today.
Director-General of the Exchange Mrs. Ndidi Okereke-Onyiuke had last week disclosed to dealing stockbrokers on the floor of the market that Sanusi would be visiting, accompanied by the new managing directors of the five banks whose chief executive officers and managements were sacked by the CBN last month.
It is expected that Sanusi would speak on the margin loans which has become an albatross to the daily activities of most stockbrokers. Leaders of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers and Association of owners of stock broking firms said they have been seeking understanding of the CBN governor on the repayment of the loans, but said officials of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been harassing them to pay up.
As a result, many stock operators have been conducting their trading activities in the market while looking over their backs and this has impacted negatively on stock prices. NSE in a statement on Tuesday issued by its spokesman, Sola Oni, said Sanusi along with the five newly appointed Chief Executive Officers of banks are scheduled to have an interactive session with The Nigerian Stock Exchange Community on debt recovery efforts, especially as it affects the market.
However, equity prices went down by N34 billion at the end of trading activities on the floor of the market yesterday.
Market capitalisation closed at N4.843 trillion, in sharp contrast to the previous day’s trading of N4.877 trillion, a N34 billion loss. All Share Index also went down by 189.45 points to close at 21,090.08 point levels against Monday’s dealings of 21,279.53 point levels.
In all, a total of 375.582 million shares valued at N3.449 billion were traded yesterday in 6,606 deals. This was against the previous trading day of 405.711 million shares valued at N2.908 billion recorded in 4,780 deals.