Ex-CBN Deputy Governor Says 20 Percent Of The Currency In Circulation Is Fake

A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and
chief executive of CEPER, Mr. Obadiah Mailafia, has disclosed that 20
per cent of the currency circulating in the country is fake.
Mailafia, who made this known on Monday while delivering a lecture at
the public hearing on the 2017 budget, said it would be impossible to
bring down food prices with fake currency in circulation.
According to him, “twenty percent of currency circulating in Nigeria
is fake; you can’t bring down food prices if you have fake currency
circulating.”
Mailafia also stated that aside the foreign exchange crisis, the
refusal of CBN to effectively regulate commercial banks contributed to
the recession in the country.
His words, “I am a former deputy governor of CBN so when it comes to
regulations, we could have done better.
“If you have recession, you have to open a situation room, where
experts will be monitoring the economy daily. These experts will work
to on ways to get the country out of the situation.”
He warned that “naira will continue to plunge further until we are
bold in economic policies, infrastructure and monitoring.
“This is where boldness in economic policy is needed. Though the
current administration inherited recession, Nigerians expect them to
tackle it. That was what the Obama administration did. We need
stabilisation of the exchange rates.”
Mailafia, who disclosed that “Nigeria’s fall in grace started from the
railway collapse”, advised that the budgetary process should be
structured in a way that would ensure rapid economic recovery.
While delivering his speech at the public hearing for the 2017 budget,
the Senate President, Bukola Saraki said that the public hearing is
the first of its kind, adding that it is coming at a crucial stage.
He pointed out that the country is at a critical stage in its march to
development hence the idea of the joint public hearing by both
chambers of the National Assembly on the 2017 National Budget.