The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has promised to provide information on the disbursement of the new notes of N200, N500 and N1,000.
The CBN stated this in its response to the request made to it by activist lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) in a letter dated February 16, 2023 pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
The CBN’s response was contained in a letter dated February 24, 2023 reference CSD/FOICON/FFC/001/033 signed by Aminu Mohammed for Director/Secretary to the Board and entitled: “Re: Request for Information on Disbursement of New Naira Notes to Commercial Banks”.
It stated: “We write to acknowledge your letter dated the 16th of February, 2023 on the above matter and wish to inform you that the information being sought, where available, will be communicated to you in due course.”
Falana had requested the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to provide information on the disbursement of the new notes.
Falana based his letter on the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
The request followed statement credited to the CBN governor “that some unnamed politicians have mopped up the new Naira notes made available to all commercial banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
Falana promised to file a suit against the CBN governor if he fails or refuse to provide the requested information before the deadline of seven days at the Federal High Court to compel him to accede to their request.
The letter was signed on his behalf by Femi Adedeji.
The letter stated in part: “We are compelled to request you to furnish us with information concerning the amount of the designed notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations made available to each commercial bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria.’’
“Furthermore, we also request you to furnish us with the list of customers of the commercial banks who collected more than N100,000 approved by you from the commercial banks.”
THE NATION
