Our reporter| The Central Bank Governor (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday made the long awaited appearance before the ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives which is investigating the scarcity of the new naira notes.
Emefiele while addressing the committee explained that he had been out of the country hence his failure to honour previous invitations.
On the redesign of the naira, he explained that CBN’s actions were in line with international best practices and the apex bank has to be in control of the currency in circulation.
The CBN boss further stated that in 2015 N1.4 trillion was in circulation, and by last year it had risen to N3.33 trillion.
According to him, the reason for directing banks to ensure only ATM withdrawals was to limit the daily withdrawal of individuals.
He decried the trend of the new notes being sighted at parties and stated he was in meetings with commercial banks to mitigate these.
The apex bank boss agreed that the policies would hurt some persons but claimed it was in the interest of the country especially in combating insecurity.
Emefiele had previously failed to appear before the lawmakers despite initial requests detailing in a series of letters that he was in the United States on an important assignment.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday threatened to ask the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, to issue an arrest warrant on Emiefele to compel him to appear before the House.
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