CBN Spends A Whopping N58bn To Print Naira Notes

By Fola James

The Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN said it has cut down the cost of printing naira notes after spending over N58 billion to print N2.518 billion Naira notes last year. The apex bank said it has been making serious efforts to cut down the cost by establishing other payment channels, one of which is the recent introduction of the Central Bank Digital Currency, CBDC also known as the e-Naira.

The apex bank revealed that the notes were printed in the country by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc, NSPM Plc.

The government bank disclosed this in its 2020 Currency Report posted on its website on Thursday, noting that the cost of printing naira notes has reduced in the past two years.

For instance, the report indicates that N75.5 billion and N64.0 billion spent by the CBN for the printing of currency in 2019 and 2018 respectively.

According to the report, “the total cost incurred on printing of banknotes in 2020 amounted to N58.6 billion compared with N75.5 billion in 2019. This indicated a decrease of N16.9 billion or 28.84 percent.”

“The CBN approved 2.518 billion pieces of banknotes of various denominations in 2020 to satisfy the currency needs of the economy compared with 3.830 billion in the preceding year.

“The NSPM Plc was awarded the contract for the production of the entire indent. At end of December 2020, NSPM Plc had delivered 100 percent of the approved indent.”

The apex bank also put the total stock of currency (issuable & non-issuable) in its vaults at the end of December 2020 at 2.747 billion pieces compared to 2.641 billion pieces in 2019. This indicated an increase of 105.73 million pieces or 4.0 percent.

“At end of December 2020, the total issuable notes (newly printed notes and Counted Audited Clean notes) was 592.94 million pieces compared with 726.43 million pieces in 2019, representing a decrease of 133.49 million pieces or 18.38 percent,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, the apex bank has also stated in the report that Currency-in-Circulation, CIC rose by 19.06 per cent from N2.441 trillion at end December, 2019 to N2 .907 trillion at end-December 2020, noting that more efforts were concentrated in printing higher denomination notes.

“The growth in CIC reflected the continued dominance of cash in the economy. Analysis of the CIC shows that a greater proportion was in higher denomination banknotes (N100, N200, N500 and N1000).

“The higher denomination banknotes together accounted for 63.47 per cent and 98.08 per cent of the total CIC, in terms of volume and value, respectively. The volume of lower denomination banknotes (N5, N10, N20, N50), accounted for 28.43 per cent of the total CIC and 1.92 per cent, in terms of value as at end-December 2020.”

According to the report, a total of 173,585 boxes of banknotes valued at N980. 758 billion was processed last year, compared with 260,651 boxes of banknotes valued at N1. 533 trillion in 2019.

This represents a decrease of 33.40 per cent in the number of boxes or N552. 971 billion in value of processed banknotes.

On counterfeit notes, the report indicated that a total of 67,265 pieces of counterfeit notes with a nominal value of N56.83 million was confiscated in 2020, indicating a 20.80 per cent decrease in volume and 12.18 per cent decrease in value, compared with 84,934 pieces valued at N64.71 million in 2019.