The Federal Government has maintained
its ground to support the bid by the
Central Bank to introduce and print N5,
000 notes in the country.
Minister of National Planning, Dr. Usman
Shamsudeen who gave the hint while
speaking to State House Correspondents
after a meeting of the Economic
Management Team (EMT) said the
endorsement of the N5000 note by the
EMT followed an approval of the currency
by President Goodluck Jonathan.
"Obviously, the discussion today was
basically to endorse. Mr. President had
already approved; that is the only
requirement by law. The CBN is to
propose and Mr. President is to approve.
And since Mr. President has approved,
really what is important is to just explain.
I personally had some concerns about the
coins but since some discussion with the
CBN governor, he has actually clarified
that even the media didn't get it", the
minister said.
Arguing that the N5000 note, unlike
some people were misrepresenting it,
was not going to lead to higher inflation,
Samsudeen also hinted that CBN was
going to communicate to Nigerians that
the coins will run concurrently with the
naira notes they are replacing as a form
of test-run for Nigerians to accept them
first.
He said, "There is absolutely no link. I am
an economist. I have been deputy
governor operations of the Central Bank.
In the last review of the introduction of
N1000 note and the various coins I was
deeply involved, it was my responsibility
at the central bank. There is absolutely
no link between inflation and the
currency denomination.
"The coins are being introduced on an
introductory basis so that if people accept
them and are using them, then gradually
they will withdraw the other notes but
they will run concurrently with the notes.
Those were my concerns initially
because you remember during my time in
the CBN, we introduced the one naira and
two naira coins. Unfortunately, they were
not utilized at all. Part of that is really the
value of one naira and two naira today.
What can you buy?
On the contention that there is a link
between the N5000 note and corruption,
he said, "It is an area that I obviously
know nothing about. I think people
alleged that part of that corruption is
being done in dollars. A $100 bill is
N16,000 and N5000 note will be $30. So,
which one is bigger to carry if you are
doing corruption?
"So, I don't think it is necessarily going to
increase the level of corruption. Those
doing corruption will probably find that
too small. $100 bill is still bigger than the
N5,000 note", the minister added.
http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/34161/2012/09/04/no_going_back_n5000_note_fg.html

Then they go for strike
front page pls

the issue of trying to withdraw large sums at the ATM will be aided by this..I used to always hear people tell me to not withdraw more than 10 or 20 thousand at ATM because if the currency unit is small denomination,the stack will be big and can jam in the machine....Any way thats the only real benefit i see to it,or else they do like brazil and create whole new currency with a valuation that allows small denominations to have buying power...5000 naira note is the cheaper route