The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it will slam a
fine on commercial banks found culpable of breaching the law on counterfeit
notes.
In an interview with Channels TV, CBN’s Director of Currency
Operations, Priscilla Ejeje, said the move is part of the apex bank’s reforms
to ensure there are clean notes in circulation.
“Once notes are unfit, they are expected to be withdrawn
from circulation. That is our job as a Central Bank. We have told them
(commercial banks), we have been engaging them. And we believe that they will
do their bits. And this time around, we are giving a voice to the public. We
have a having a lot of sensitisation all over the country so that the public
will also know what their right is and that they have a right to complain to
the Central Bank
So,
we will go in and investigate a breach and of course we have told them that
beginning with counterfeit, there is a penalty for a breach. And that penalty
is one million naira per finding in any branch,” she stated.
Reacting, the Director of Corporate Communication at the
apex bank, Isaac Okoroafor, said counterfeiting is a serious offence under the
law. While calling on the public to report any incident of fake or unfit
currency, the CBN spokesman explained that the rationale behind it is to reduce
the menace.
“It is the role of individuals to report any breach of this
policy and guidelines to us and it is our role to take action. It is also the
role of the banks to ensure that unfit notes are returned to us. It is our role
to ensure we destroy that note and issue a new one to replace it.”
According to Okoroafor, the cost of currency management and
minting by the Central Bank is enormous, hence the need to ensure that only
clean notes are in circulation.
