As governors of the All Progressives Congress meet with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Governor Nasir el-Rufai has said that there is crisis in currency circulation in the currently due to the way the Central Bank of Nigeria is handling naira redesign.
According to him, the CBN mopped up a trillion naira but printed only N300bn.
This is as the members of the Progressives Governors’ Forum on Friday urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to prevail on the Central Bank of Nigeria to allow the old and new naira notes to co-exist.
El-Rufai argued that the move had become necessary as the CBN mopped up over N2tn of the old notes but only printed N300bn of the new ones.
According to him, the new notes in circulation are insufficient for Nigerians.
The former FCT minister said the CBN’s cashless policy should have been preceded by the printing of at least half of the amount mopped up, N1tn.
He lamented that many Nigerians were suffering even as traders of perishable goods are daily losing their wares from low patronage.
Citing tomatoes as an example, El-Rufai said some sellers from the North who travelled to Lagos with their goods experienced wastage because buyers lacked the cash to purchase them.
Therefore, the governors appealed to the President to consider their request.
Asked about Buhari’s response, he said the President did not reply with a “yes” or “no.”
