The Central Bank of Nigeria has dismissed claims by its former deputy governor, Obadiah Mailafia that up to 20% of naira in circulation was fake.

According to a statement by CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor (photo), the bank has stringent policies put in place in the country to ensure that the prevalence of the counterfeit note is minimal.

“While we acknowledge that no currency in the world is immune from counterfeiting. Our records at the bank clearly indicate that from January to December 2016, the prevalence of the note was less than 1% (0.0014%) or 14 counterfeit pieces out of the one million bank notes. We have always endeavored to use strong security features to make it difficult for dishonest persons to counterfeit the currency. In addition to that, we have carried out periodic massive nationwide enlightenment of Nigerians on easy identification of fake bank notes and the reporting of such to the appropriate quarters.”

Okoroafor, however, urged the members of the public to disregard the false claim “we find it rather curious that a former high-ranking official of the CBN would make such unauthentic claims calculated to destroy the confidence in our national currency and sabotage the collaborative efforts of the CBN and the Federal Government at ensuring enduring stability of the financial system. We, therefore, challenge the said former CBN official to make public the empirical evidence suggesting that 20% Naira in circulation is fake.”

Anita Fatunji