CBN dumps polymer currency, reverts to paper banknotes before June 2014

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that it will revert to paper banknotes before June 2014.

The apex bank also that said the policy would not be a drain on the country’s finance and would be gradual.

The Director of Communication of CBN, Ugochukwu Okoroafor, stated that “Polymer has been on a test run since 2007. This explains why we did not go the whole hog by printing all the notes in polymer'. “We only used polymer for N5, N10, N20 and N50, while N100, N200, N500 and N1, 000 are in paper form. We soon discovered that the polymer notes easily fade out because of our peculiar hot climate in Nigeria making them look tattered when in use over time. What we have decided is to switch over to paper notes when we next want to print naira notes ” he added. “When the polymer notes in circulation become tattered and ready to be disposed of, we will start the printing of paper notes.” The new paper banknotes would be printed locally by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company rather than abroad, he added.

The CBN also disclosed that there had been a public outcry about the poorer quality of some of the new currency in circulation.

The CBN signed a deal in 2006 with Australia’s Securency International to print lower more-circulated units of the naira in polymer, while higher denominations were kept in paper form.

The company was reported to have supplied 1.9 billion of its Guardian brand polymer-based notes to Nigeria between 2006 and 2008.