Nigeria recorded N2.9 trillion Currency in Circulation in 2020

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reported that there was N2.907 trillion currency in circulation in Nigeria as at end-December 2020.

This was disclosed in the recently released Annual Report 2020 as compiled by the CBN’s Currency Operations Department.

The report stated that “Currency-in-Circulation (CIC) increased by 19.06 per cent from N2,441.67 billion at end December, 2019 to N2,907.13 billion at end-December 2020.

The growth in CIC reflected the continued dominance of cash in the economy despite effort of the CBN to transform the economy into a cashless dominated one.

Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria

A recent initiative in furtherance of the cashless economy pursuit by the apex bank was the introduction of eNaira and the approval in principle (AIP) granted telcos with the aim to promote a more cashless and financial inclusiveness in the country.

Analysis of the CIC shows that a greater proportion was in higher denomination banknotes (N100, N200, N500 and N1000).”

It further explained that the higher denomination banknotes together accounted for 63.47 per cent and 98.08 per cent of the total CIC, in terms of volume and value, respectively. The volume of lower denomination banknotes (N5, N10, N20, N50), accounted for 28.43 per cent of the total CIC and 1.92 per cent, in terms of value as at end-December 2020.

On currency processed in 2020, the report said “a total of 173,585 boxes of banknotes valued at N980,758 million was processed, compared with 260,651 boxes of banknotes valued at N1,533,729 million in 2019. This represents a decrease of 33.4 per cent in the number of boxes or N552,971 million in value of processed banknotes.”

In terms of revenue from currency management, it said the sum of N6,499.91 million was generated as income from penal charges on deposits of unsorted banknotes and charges for authentication of foreign currency deposits by deposit money banks in 2020.