N5,000 Note: Does SLS Love Women That Much?

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Last week, the Governor of Central Bank Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi announced the planned introduction of a N5000 Bill. Many have wondered the motivation for this. I am one of them. He also talked about coining some denominations. As I wondered further, I learnt it will cost a whopping sum of N40 billion to print these new set of notes. Here is an economy that is more or less anemic. Inflation is eating us all up. The Naira seems to have lost the battle to compete against stronger currencies, purchasing power of Nigerians is getting weaker and weaker. Those in buying-and-selling business groan for poor patronage, our take-home pays take us only to bus-stops,  and everybody is praying and asking when a messiah will come. And a CBN governor wakes up to announce the introduction of N5000 Bill at such a huge cost.

This is the same CBN talking about Cashless economy; which more or less means less cash should be circulating in the economy. And then a N5000 bill is introduced. They don’t add up   Is this move not antithetical to the cashless policy? I am not an economist, but I am not so idiotic. Is the lack of N5000 bill our problem? The argument that Singapore, Japan and Germany  have high denominations which has not prompted inflation does not sound convincing. The character of our economies are fundamentally different.