CBN: Currency in Circulation Hits N2.34tn in April

•Anti-graft agencies, others probing alleged breach of IPPIS’ payment protocol, says OAGF  

•Suspends staff

Ndubuisi Francis and James Emejo in Abuja

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday disclosed that currency-in-circulation in the country stood at N2.34 trillion as of April 18, 2023, from N3.23 trillion in October last year.

Speaking on Arise Television, a sister broadcast arm of THISDAY, CBN Director, Currency Operations Department, Mr. Ahmed Umar, explained that currency in circulation comprises both the new and old banknotes.

This was just as the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) yesterday said it was aware of reported breach of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) third party payment protocol at an institute outside Abuja.

Speaking further, Umar expressed confidence that between now and December, the uptick in the use of alternative channels of payment transactions would reduce the amount of physical cash in the system and help increase the visibility of the central bank’s digital currency – eNaira.

Umar also said that as a result of the implementation of the cashless policy, the volume of electronic transactions had risen significantly.

He said electronic showed an increase of 984 per cent in transactions in the first quarter of 2023 when compared with the corresponding period of 2022.

According to him, electronic transactions stood at N434 million in Q1 2022 and went up to N7 billion between January and March 2023, representing a growth of about 984 per cent.

The CBN director also used the opportunity to clarify that there was no decision by the apex bank to withdraw the new naira denominations from circulation as alleged in the social media.

He said both the new and old banknotes would continue to circulate in the system up to the end when the old notes would be withdrawn on December 31, 2023, in compliance with the order of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

He said, “So, there is no truth in the news making the rounds that CBN is going to stop issuing the new notes.

The new and old notes are circulating side by side and as of April 18, we have over N2.34 trillion in circulation.”

He stressed that both notes would continue to circulate until the period the Supreme Court had given that the old notes should cease to be legal tender.

Umar said that the currency redesign project has had a positive impact on the economy.

 He pointed out that there had been an increase in enrolment of the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) from 55 million in October 2022 to about 57 million in April 2023.

He also said mobile money wallet had increased from N15 million in October last year to about N25 million in 2023.

He stated that deposit money banks are currently working hard day by day to make sure that they improve their infrastructure in view of the new customers who were previously not using bank accounts but are now utilising banking facilities.

 Umar said this was to, “address issues that we had including failure rates which we had previously.”

He stated that the naira redesign programme had further helped to address issues around counterfeiting, ransom-taking, and money laundering.

He said the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) is currently ramping up production of the redesigned banknotes as well as issuing them side by side with the old notes.

We believe between now and December, there would be uptick in the use of alternative channels and the increased visibility of the eNaira.

“We are hoping that resort to cash will decline and we will come back to a comfortable level that we feel is stable and feasible for appropriate policy transmission,” he added.

He said the CBN was working to increase the outlets where people can use the eNaira.

“We want to have it at every corner so people don’t need to carry cash for their daily transactions and we are working with so many people who are coming up with new ideas,” Umar stated.

 He revealed that the markets, tricycle operators as well as corporate institutions have started to adopt eNaira as the payment options particularly the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) which has resolved to accept eNaira for registration – as well as payment of school fees in universities.

He added that incentives and discounts are being given for the use of eNaira to boost its adoption nationwide.

Meanwhile, the OAGF has disclosed that the anti-corruption, security and regulatory agencies were investigating the alleged ‘salary padding’ on the IPPIS involving some unspecified MDAs.

The IPPIS, which is domiciled in the OAGF was designed to provide a reliable and comprehensive database for the public service to check the problem of ghost workers, facilitating human resource planning, eliminate manual record and payroll fraud as well as to facilitate easy storage, update and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pension processes.

In a statement issued yesterday, by its Director, Press and Public Relations, Bawa Mokwa, the OAGF said it had received enquiries over alleged “salary padding” on the IPPIS involving some unspecified MDAs.

Although he noted that there was no evidence of salary padding before the OAGF at the moment, he however, disclosed that the office was aware of the reported breach of the IPPIS third party payment protocol at an institute outside Abuja.

According to him, the OAGF had already suspended a staff involved in the alleged padding, pending investigations.

The statement read: “This is to inform the general public that there is no evidence of “salary padding” before the OAGF at this time; however, the office is aware of reported breach of the IPPIS third party payment protocol at an Institute outside Abuja.

“The incident has since been reported to, and is being investigated by relevant anti-corruption, security and regulatory agencies.  In the meantime, a staff suspected to be connected with the breach has been suspended to allow for thorough investigation.

“All necessary steps are being taken to strengthen the controls around the IPPIS payment platform and an independent forensic audit of the entire payroll system is underway to ascertain if the reported breach is isolated or widespread.”