The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the currency in circulation in the country has dropped to N982.09 billion at the end of February from N3.29 trillion at the end of October 2022.
Figures from the CBN reveal that N2.3 trillion was mopped up from circulation during the period of naira redesign policy.
According to the Apex bank, currency in circulation moved from N3.16 trillion in November, 2022, to N3.29 trillion in December, 2022, and N1.38 trillion in January 2023.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had in October, 2022, announced plans to redesign the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes.
Mr Emefiele also announced deadlines for Nigerians to swap their old notes with the new notes.
He decried the challenges associated with currency management, including the hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 80% of currency-in-circulation was outside the vaults of commercial banks.
The CBN said it employed the “accounting, statistical, withdrawals and deposits approach” to compute the currency in circulation in Nigeria.
“This approach involved tracking the movements of currency in circulation on a transaction-by-transaction basis.It said for every withdrawal made by a DMB at one of CBN’s branches, an increase in the CIC was recorded,” it said.
The apex bank said analysis of the currency in circulation showed that a large and increasing proportion of the naira outside the commercial banking system was held by the public who hoard a lot of the new banknotes.
