THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA'S ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE 2023 NAIRA REDESIGN POLICY: A RESPONSE TO THE ISSUE OF MANAGING INFLATION

Abstract

Currency redesign is one of the statutory functions of any nation’s central bank to undertake. African countries have been facing economic challenges, which are noted in their standard of living and incessant increase figures of inflation. Nigeria has been battling with super inflation due to myriad causes, despite successive governments’ efforts such as currency redesigning. Historically, the naira was first introduced to replace the pound sterling at the rate of 2 naira for 1 pound in 1973. Since then, naira notes have been redesigned, while some new notes have been equally introduced occasionally due to economic realities at domestic and foreign levels. In the recent past, the administration of President Muhammad Buhari redesigned the naira with the claim to curb inflation. This paper is an attempt to investigate the extent to which the recent currency redesign has helped in curbing inflation, as claimed by the central bank then. The paper uses a secondary source of data collection and content analysis was used to analyze data gathered. It made use of a political economy approach as a theoretical framework. The paper concludes that the 2023-naira redesign has proven to be inadequate in controlling and managing inflation. The paper recommends that the Central Bank of Nigeria be up and doing in preventing monetary discharge that affects excessive price fluctuations and reducing hyperinflation in the economy