In the midst of scarcity of new naira notes, the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi said currency redesign is an exercise that comes with some inconvenience and pain but it has significant longterm economic and social benefits.
Peter Obi who made this known on his social media platform on Sunday while reacting to the hardship Nigerians are going through over the scarcity of the new naira notes, added that the currency redesign is not peculiar to the country.
He urged Nigerians to bear with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Federal Government with the hope that the general populace, Nigerians will harvest the gains that will come with the reforms while saying there are improvements that can be made.
The Labour Party Presidential Candidate equally implored the CBN and the banks to expedite efforts to make the new currency available to small depositors and the unbanked in order to reduce the pains of his fellow Nigerians, especially the underprivileged and those living far away from banks in the rural areas.
Some of the concerns arising from the redesign of the new naira notes, which is more disturbing is the fact that after depositing the old notes, there are no new notes, so people everywhere in the urban areas and rural areas simply have no money.
The struggles and actual fights recorded in banking halls, ATM and POS points, and markets across the country are disquieting. Choice of this period for the implementation of a policy, which bears instant negative impact with no discernible mitigation in sight, raises serious suspicion of partisanship on the part of the CBN.
The ordinary people are the victims. Depositors can no longer access their monies even to feed their families. Hunger must not be the anticipated result of a monetary policy. Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria had directed the swapping of old naira notes to new notes and fixed February 10, 2023, as the deadline.