The 2020 annual currency report of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that the apex bank discovered counterfeit notes with a nominal value of N56.83 million in 2020.
The apex bank described counterfeit currency as an imitation of currency produced without legal sanction from the state or government. Producing or spending counterfeit currency is a form of fraud or forgery.
The report said to maintain the integrity of bank notes in circulation, the bank, in collaboration with security agencies, sustained efforts at combating counterfeiting activities in 2020. A total of 67,265 pieces of counterfeit notes with a nominal value of N56.83 million were recorded in 2020.
The report further said the recovered counterfeit notes were 20.80 per cent in volume and 12.18 per cent value lower than the 84,934 pieces and N64.71 million recovered in 2019.
The apex bank also revealed that the high denomination naira notes were the most counterfeited, with N1000 and N500 denominations accounting for 69.06 per cent and 30.79 per cent respectively, of the total counterfeit notes.
Similarly, the report showed that the CBN disposed of N698,480.00 million worth of unfit bank notes in 2020.
It said the bank sustained banknotes disposal operations in 2020 to ensure the circulation of clean banknotes. In furtherance of this objective, it deployed eleven (11) Banknote Destruction Systems (BDS) and three (3) Currency Disintegrating Systems (CDS) for currency disposal activities in the period under review.
The CBN also revealed that the sum of N538.59 million was incurred on currency disposal activities in 2020, compared with N647.82 million in 2019. This was N109.23 million or 16.86 per cent lower than the cost in 2019.
The apex bank also suffered a decline in the income generated from currency management compared to previous years.
However, it reduced the cost of printing banknotes in 2020 by N16.905 million, showing a 28.8 percent decline from the previous year.
CBN stated in the report that the notes were printed by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPM Plc).
