The House of Representatives yesterday, blamed members of staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for growing trading in new Naira notes.
In a resolution in Abuja, the House said there was a ‘cartel’ made up of bank staff, who exchanged the new Naira notes for bribe and later resale them to members of the public.
Lawmakers noted that the cartel ensured that new notes were not in circulation, a factor that explained the mutilated notes in the economy.
The House directed the CBN to stop the “bribe for new Naira notes” by investigating the cartel and punishing the members of staff involved.
Mr. Isaac Osahon, member, who moved a motion on the matter, informed the House that the new notes were later sold to people to be used for ‘spraying’ at social events like wedding, parties, burial ceremonies and naming.”
He said the trading was done in breach of the extant Section 21 (4) of the CBN Act, which prohibits the hawking of Naira notes and coins.
Osahon added that lower denomination notes like N5, N10, N20 and N50 were scarce in the country, “creating an avenue for illegal currency hawkers to make brisk business of selling the Naira notes.”
Giving further insight into how the cartel operates, the lawmaker stated that hawkers around Dei-Dei Junction in Abuja, charged N200 commission for every N1,000 sold and for “every N2,000, they get no less than N400.”
Besides investigating the cartel, the motion asked the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Security to arrest and prosecute bank workers involved in the illegal transaction.
A member from Anambra State, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, informed the House that the act was common in the Lagos area, where residents ‘sprayed’ notes at social gatherings.
Another lawmaker, Mr. Fort Dike, called on the CBN to ensure that it tracked all new notes released to the public through commercial banks.
“The CBN is to blame for this problem. It is CBN that issues new notes to the public.
“If the notes find their way into the wrong hands, we should blame CBN.
“CBN is culpable, the commercial banks are culpable; but CBN is the regulator,” he added.
