Enhances inter-bank market again with $210m

Operations Department, CBN, Mrs Priscilia Eleje, conducted the disbursement of the lower Naira Bills at a publicity campaign on, “Disbursement of Lower Denominations of the Naira, at the Wuse Market, Abuja.

She said the campaign was targeted at the informal sector, especially traders, with the aim of increasing the circulation of the smaller units of the naira to make doing business easier.

According to her, the Federal Capital Territory will be used as the pilot stage of the new campaign, and if successful, will be replicated nationwide. Eleje said the new strategy would ensure that traders desist from hiking prices of goods, simply to avoid looking for “change.’’ According to her, new naira notes will be distributed to traders within Wuse and Garki markets, and others through their associations. “The notes we will be disbursing are mints. This money is not meant for you to keep in your house or to go and spray at weddings or sell.

“We have our operatives everywhere, and whoever is caught selling these notes will be prosecuted. “These notes are meant to be used for daily transactions so that when a customer comes to the market, you won’t tell him or her that you don’t have change,” she said.

Eleje said the money was not free, adding that rather, the CBN through the various associations in the market would exchange lower denominations for larger ones.