New naira notes: EFCC moves to clampdown on currency hoarders

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it would monitor the redesign of naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure that currency hoarders do not undermine the exercise.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had announced that the apex bank obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to redesign and issue new N200, N500, and N1000 notes that would come into circulation on December 15, 2022.

Speaking on the development, the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, in a statement issued on Thursday by the spokesperson of the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, described the move by the apex bank as “a well-considered and timely response” to the challenges of currency management which has negatively impacted the country’s monetary policy and security imperatives.

Bawa, however, warned that the EFCC will monitor the process to ensure that unscrupulous players and currency speculators and their cohorts among the bureau de change operators do not undermine the exercise.

He also charged banks to be alive to their reporting obligations and not assist unscrupulous customers in laundering suspected proceeds of crimes through their system.

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The EFCC boss added that the objectives which the CBN seeks to achieve with the redesign and reissue of the higher denomination naira notes, were in tandem with the objectives of the Money Laundering Prevention Prohibition Act 2022, which criminalises the conduct of cash transactions above a certain threshold.

“According to Section 2 (1) of the Money Laundering Act 2022 “No person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding— (a) N5,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual; or (b) N10,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of a body corporate,” he noted.

Bawa expressed hope that the new currency measure would further boost Nigerians’ embrace of banking culture and encourage the acceptance of cashless transactions, adding that the anti-graft agency had recently taken operational action against currency hoarders in major commercial cities of Nigeria.

“It is, therefore, pertinent to issue this stern warning to Bureau de Change operators to be wary of currency hoarders who would attempt to seize this opportunity to offload the currencies they had illegally stashed away,” he said.

Noting that currency hoarders readily made their hoard available to criminal enterprise, the EFCC boss further stated that the commission will spare no effort to bring to book any financial services operator who runs afoul of extant laws and regulations.

The Star