CBN Responsible For Naira Crisis — Former Finance Minister

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Dr Idika Kalu, a former Minister of Finance, has blamed the Central Bank of Nigeria for the crisis that has characterized the distribution of new N1,000, N500 and N200.

Kalu made the assertion on Channels Television on Friday, noting that the new naira scarcity is a result of a huge logistic mistake.

“It is obvious that what we are dealing with is huge logistic mistakes that have been made”, he said.

He added that the CBN ought to have done its preliminary assessment of how long and what it would take to ensure the efficient distribution of the new notes.

“You have to assess the timing, which is predicated on how long it will take to do the exercise that you want to do.

“So, that is where it is really up to the central bank and its advisers to come up to the government to say, you have agreed we will do this.

“This is how much time we need, every aspect of it, procuring the papers for printing, whether it is imported or locally made, the printing process itself, the logistics of identifying the various constituencies, the banks, the communities, the rural areas and all segments of this country.

“The people are not interested in all these details but you have to take into account how you are going to deliver. Is it by air, road, train or a combination of all that?” he added.

He further explained that the reason the new notes are not in banks when people needed them is due to poor logistics.

“The logistics have to be very carefully put together. It is very apparent that we did not do that.

“I think the logistics are really the problem not the question of jurisdiction,” Kalu noted.

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