President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to recirculate N200 notes to rein in currency scarcity, but findings have shown that N200 constitutes only 9.191 percent of total currency volume in the last seven years.
After a public outcry on the impact of the CBN naira redesign policy, Buhari announced that only N200 old notes would be accepted as legal tenders, stating that the old N500 and N1000 would no longer be valid.
He also stated that the N200 old notes would remain legal tenders till April 10 this year.
But based on Dataphyte findings, recirculating N200 notes will be a scratch in the pan as N200 constituted less than 10 percent of currency in circulation in the last seven years.
This means that recirculation of N200 notes may not have any serious impact on the scarcity, according to experts.
Based on reports published by the CBN in its annual economic report, the highest volume of N200 notes was circulated in 2021. During that year, 1.2 billion pieces of N200 notes were put into circulation by the apex bank. This figure represented 11.48 percent of 10.687 billion pieces of currency notes of different denominations in circulation that year.
In 2021, N1000 and N500 notes had the highest volumes in circulation, with 1.933 billion and 2.003 billion pieces, respectively.
In the seven years reviewed, the lowest number of N200 notes was recorded in 2015 when 401.63 million pieces were put into circulation. This year, N1000 and N500 have had the highest volumes in circulation, with 1.011 billion and 1.322 billion pieces, respectively.
Although the CBN has released new notes into circulation, there has been currency scarcity, with many Nigerians, including those in the rural areas lamenting their inability to access these currencies.
Some states like Kaduna have come out to negate the stance of the Federal Government on validity of old naira notes, with mostly the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) governors taking legal and agresssive measures to counter the CBN and Buhari.
it remains unclear if the percentage of N200 notes will increase.
Experts had told Dataphyte that the government’s policy was ill-thought and should be rejigged to ensure that Nigerians did not suffer the ripple effect of the developments.
Experts also opined that Nigeria needed more time to achieve its cashless policy target, calling for a gradual phase-out of the old currencies