ABUJA: The Organised Private Sector (OPS) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have rejected fresh calls for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to introduce higher-value currency notes, warning that such a move would worsen inflation, erode monetary stability, and derail the country’s cashless policy.
Their position followed a recent report by Quartus Economics, which urged the apex bank to issue ₦10,000 and ₦20,000 notes to restore the naira’s portability and reduce the cost of cash transactions. The report, titled Is Africa’s Eagle Stuck or Soaring Back to Life?, claimed that the ₦1,000 note had become “practically obsolete” in terms of purchasing power.
However, leading voices in the private sector described the proposal as “elitist and economically unsound.
The National Vice President of the Nigerian Association of Small-Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Segun Kuti-George, said the policy would only benefit the wealthy and contradict the government’s digital economy agenda.
Such a policy could worsen inflationary pressures. Even considering these denominations shows the economy’s deep inflation trend. If necessary at all, a ₦2,000 note may suffice, but anything beyond that is unrealistic for current realities,” he stated.
Kuti-George warned that introducing ₦10,000 and ₦20,000 notes would undermine efforts to reduce cash transactions and promote electronic payments.
In a country where the minimum wage is ₦70,000, what sense does it make to have a ₦20,000 note? It only makes hoarding easier for the rich,” he added.
Similarly, the Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Eke Ubiji, described the proposal as bogus and ill-conceived,
insisting that it could push the economy into a deeper crisis. Inflation and weak purchasing power are already strangling small businesses. Higher-value notes will not reduce inflation but compound it, he said.
The President of the Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON), Dr. Femi Egbesola, also faulted the idea, arguing that it would derail the country’s transition to a cashless economy.
Globally, economies are reducing the use of hard cash. Printing higher bills sends the wrong signal and could trigger more inflation, Egbesola said.
He urged the CBN to focus instead on improving the value of the naira and deepening financial inclusion, noting that “the goal should be to strengthen purchasing power, not print higher bills.
TheChief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, took a more measured view, acknowledging that higher notes could reduce cash management costs for banks but warned that excessively high denominations could encourage counterfeiting and weaken cashless policy gains. He suggested that introducing a ₦5,000 note might strike a balance.
The NLC, through its Assistant Secretary-General, Chris Onyeka, dismissed the move as an old economic mistake being recycled. Printing higher denominations won’t stop the naira from falling; it only confirms the economy is sinking deeper, Onyeka said.
He recalled that a similar proposal under former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012 was suspended after widespread opposition. At the time, the CBN had announced plans to issue a ₦5,000 note featuring Margaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Kuti, and Gambo Sawaba.
Analysts at Quartus Economics maintained that had the ₦5,000 note been introduced in 2012, it would now be equivalent to ₦50,000 in value, reflecting a 94 per cent decline in purchasing power.
For now, however, both labour and private sector leaders agree that printing ₦10,000 or ₦20,000 notes would be a retrogressive step that risks worsening inflation, encouraging cash hoarding, and further undermining confidence in the naira.
