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In recent news, it is the plan of the Nigerian government to redesign its currency notes. I don't know why such a project at this time is even mentioned, because other worst case scenarios that require redesign is left abandoned or nearly abandoned in total.
My thoughts is on how such a government at these time of flooding and inflation would think that by redesign the currency, such issue will be the remedy to the countries huge debt margin or natural disaster ongoing.
Do you think the effect of redesigning the nations currency note will be of benefit to the economy and nation at large?
Let's discuss!

https://nairametrics.com/2022/10/26/cbn-redesign-naira-notes/

I have not heard this lately at least not today. You can share the link bro


Definitely it not no where a benefit, not in the Nigerian context where people have no value for anything anymore.

The Nigerian currency have been redesign several times but today the exchange rate keeps dropping against foreign currency. Today a dollar to naira is 752/5 and in the last 18 months ago it was around $1 to #390. You can see the difference and madness running in the Nigerian economy.

It is needless to say that redesigning of the naira is not the solution but to demonitize the Nigerian political system and get serious minded people who will be selfless to service not to have shenanigans going their for personal profit and to make name as a past president, governor, senator or other political offices.

Yes, Nigeria government need to focus on more serious issues than mediocre agendas. A chance to try fresh blood is what is required.

If you polish a turd, it's still a turd. Having a fancy looking currency fixes nothing about the underlying economy and it's a bit of a silly question to ask. Often times these are actually hidden deflation methods, for example removing a few zeros off the end and re-issuing currency in new denominations. If your governments fiscal policy is revolving around whether to redesign the currency, instead of spurring growth and new jobs, then they might just be rearranging unimportant stuff. Just look at Zimbabwe, who actually ended up creating hundred trillion dollar notes, but you still needed whole wheel barrows worth of them to buy anything useful.

The redesign for Nigeria isn't an overhaul of the currency system, it's merely aesthetic changes. That won't do anything. If their concern is with counterfeiting, then I suppose the redesign would help in that regard. Won't help inflation.

If you wanted to help a country's economy, ditch the currency system for a currency that's deflationary or at the least is tied to a physical asset. The problem with any fiat currency is that the supply is infinite -- there isn't anything stopping the government from merely creating more. Obviously, overhauling the currency system is a radical approach that has detrimental economic effects in the short term. Long term, it's a viable solution to save a country's economy IMO.

You have the explanation in the same article you've quoted:


It's nothing special, every country does so, even the Eurozone launched a new batch of banknotes designs in 2019,  the US has changed the design of the $100 in 2010, and Britain just replaced two of their banknotes just to change them again after the death of the Queen.

Nothing to do with the economy, its standard procedure.

Such a thing would do nothing to improve the economy at all, however this is a classic move by politicians, since they know they cannot stop the inflation that is going around Nigeria they need to do something so it seems they are actually working and doing something, so they do something completely useless like this to show how hard working they are, it is ridiculous I know but they prefer to do this than to tackle the real issues, since it will require great sacrifices from the population and from them as well.

This is quite ridiculous and misplacement of priorities if you ask me. In a nation where the naira is constantly devalued against the dollar and pounds, I doubt there's anything the rebranding of the #200, 500 and 1000 notes will do because we'd still experience the inflation.
 This time wasted to change these notes can actually be invested into something more productive like making provisions for the country to become a BTC hub or something else to help the naira and not to rebrand! Or possibly, why not take that time to fix the flooding problem that is slowly but surely putting the economy at risk?

Actually in this case it is not only about Nigeria but indeed for all countries which of course have a currency and redesigning it does not mean anything because everything remains the same in terms of value, only the visual appearance is different so this has no impact.
A country's economy can be improved in many ways than I know and redesign is not there lol

Ouch, that's harsh--but I don't live there and you could be spot-on for all I know.

Is there a major counterfeiting problem in Nigeria?  One of the points mentioned in the article is that new banknotes with enhanced security features make it much harder to counterfeit.  That is actually one tangible way upgrading a country's paper money might help the economy, but if the problem isn't rampant then I wouldn't expect to see much of an effect.  And yeah, aside from that I don't see how the new notes are of any real help to Nigerians--they're not even harming them by representing a devalued currency; they're just neutral in their impact as far as I can see.

Wonder if they've got tracking devices embedded in them.  C'mon guys, we all know that's coming if not here already.

I don't see how this is going to boost a country's currency but who knows who the government are really planning about this. I could remember once the Zimbabwe currency was redesign to the extend that the citizen thought all hope is lost but at the end they were able to revive there currency and make it live again.
It all depends on what the plan is and what they had out in place to make sure that the currency will survive if this is done.

I found your topic head very amusing and I chuckled a bit. I wonder if you’re really serious about the question in your topic.
A change in the design of a country’s currency doesn’t add any value to the currency nor does it improve its economy in any way. I think anyone with the basic knowledge of economics would know that.

If a change in design did have an impact on its value and on the economy in general, we would have every country designing and redesigning their currency notes. The most beautiful and skillful design gets to be the one with the highest value  ;D

Every country does the redesigning of their currency to improve the looks and add some security features that would be hard to forfeit and also to change some features that are present in a coin or paper bill already. And no, there's nothing it can do to you and the other countries economy. Perhaps it's just your first time to see a currency being redesign despite of your country's situation. You'll get over it soon once you see what are the results of having a new face of your currency.

it won't change their economy at all,
because their currency remains the same price,
if they or their country wants to progress maybe something like this is the right way,

• Literacy with the Latest Technology
• Maintain Facilities and Infrastructure.
• Investing in the Capital Market.
• Improving Education and Skills Possessed.
• Buying Bonds.
• pay off debts and don't make any more debt

instead of changing the paper, it will have no effect.

An average Nigerian sees this move by the Central Bank as a waste of funds because of the high rate of poverty and unemployment. They feel that the money that would be spent On redesigning these banknotes should be used to tackle some more pressing economic challenges. Others are opposing this move because they see is an avenue by the government to loot funds by inflation of the contract sum.

But in recent times Nigeria has experienced a high rate of fraud which includes currency clowning and counterfeit banknotes. There are even times when commercial banks' ATMs dispense counterfeit currency notes. This move by the Nigerian CBN will at least check this financial crime to a large extent.

No. Changing banknotes is solely afaik for the purpose of preventing counterfeit money. The design would hardly matter especially since the value of the money isn't based on the design but rather on the value given to it by the government. I don't even think inflation should be discussed with this announcement, it's goal was never to fix it in the first place. Would've probably agreed with questioning it if they said it was combat against inflation, didn't see the article saying it though.

If they decide to take out the old ones from the circulation I guess it could help. They don't do that though at least in my country they don't.
Nigeria afaik already have a national digital currency (enaira) so it's interesting to see they are redesigning bills instead of distributing cheap phones and improving internet speed and availability for the enaira adoption.

One of the reasons mentioned is the rampant counterfeiting of the current currency. New and improved currency designs would at least stop the flow of these fake bills. Hopefully, the security features of the new bills would prevent criminals from making fake copies.

So in a way there's an indirect economic benefit that the country gets from redesigning currencies. After all, if fake money is making up a large amount of the circulating supply, the value of money decreases. It contributes to the inflation. It weakens the currency.

But as far as direct economic effects are concerned, I'm afraid it doesn't have any.

Naira banknotes are the identity and proof of the sovereignty of the Nigerian nation, as a form of love and pride for Naira, the Nigerian people can support programs that are being intensified by the government. Redesigning a country's currency is not to improve its economy, it's not part of the plan and the government can't guarantee a currency redesign can improve the economy.

One of the reasons the Nigerian government printed the new Raira design is to suppress the circulation of counterfeit money by irresponsible people. Each new currency issued has a number of advantages, including a design that is easier to identify, increased security so that it is not easily counterfeited and increased durability so that it does not get worn out and damaged quickly.

I think the government has been strategic and is now doing this for a purpose. The redesigning of the currency notes isn’t to improve its economy, It’s to eliminate counterfeit currency and perhaps to mop up cash in the hands of some certain individuals(politicians).

All old notes would cease to be worth of any value by the 1st of February 2023 while the general election to elect a new president is holding on 25th of February 2023. So, perhaps this is a way to prevent or curb vote buying at the polls.
Some politicians vying for positions in the government would have probably stashed billions in cash to enable them canvass and “persuade” the people for their votes.

It seems they are already done redesigning it, but just letting the general public know the new developments and when it won't start becoming effective. They claim that a new design will help to stop counterfeiting as a benefit, but the question is for how long will it be effective? What stops counterfeiters from counterfeiting the new design. Are there no other effective ways to curb counterfeiting without spending massively on redesigning a whole national currency. IMO, this is a temporary solution to a problem that is long term.

They cannot get any benefits upon doing it since its like replacing their old money to new one so maybe we can conclude if there's a changes happen if they back up with something good things which it can boost up there economy. So if redesigning without anything good back it maybe we can see the same thing with this.

What is wrong with the designs of the existing notes? When it is expensive to print new currencies. A newly designed note is the least of Nigeria's priorities right now. There are more pressing issues that need attention in the country.

My question is, can redesign increase the value of our currency?
Its beauty can't gain its value against other countries currencies. What we need is to let our currency compete against the dollar.

At this time, printing more currency will plunge to the highest inflation of the century

https://i.imgur.com/2XHa8OI.jpeg

The only benefit of redesigning the banknotes would be increasing the level of security and lowering the amount of counterfeit banknotes currently being in circulation. I'm not an expert on Nigerian economy and finances, but I don't think that there are that many counterfeit Nigerian naira in circulation. The criminals would be making way more money by counterfeiting US dollars and euro, not Nigerian naira.

I remember reading about India redesigning her own to curb corruption and get people exchange their old designs that may be stashed or hidden somewhere for the new. I guess that is part of the reason certain governments occasionally redesign their own.
Fortunately for countries like that("third world" countries like Nigeria) , much of their people depend less on government. They are typically their own government, providing their own water, security, electricity, housings, roads etc. They hardly depend on government and its debt. They mostly run their own business and own farms... all these put together are supposed to add to cost of living and cause inflation, still their produce are relatively cheap compared to places that are highly dependent on government.
In regards flooding, I guess you may see disasters like that more in modern areas. They are usually man-made problems like blocked drainage system, dirty gutters, building on natural water ways, etc. It's mostly the symptoms of modernity. The modern world should work hard to keep the environment in order and learn to be independent of governments like people in countries like that who are hard to control or centralized through dependency. I have noticed how they easily create their own mobile/decentralized alternatives when the centralized system is impose on them.

Becareful copying the modern world. If you have problems with inflation, economy or flooding, you could go and live in rural areas or orderly places with less government Presence. Things produce by the locals should be cheap there. By the way, their economy is hugh and self-sustaining but the modern world don't always recognize it and may call it "informal" or something like that

Looking at the positive effect of it. Maybe the central bank is aware that there are lots of cash outside banks and they are looking for a way to bring them all together into the banks, to eliminate counterfeit money. Another strategy to there advantage is maybe this will prompt business traders to start asking for digital currency for transactions and this could lead some Nigerians to E-naira

The major disadvantage of it will be the cost of it. We all know its is kinda of expensive to redesign a currency. Considering the situation of the economy, this will surely affect it. There are other pressing issues to siphon this funds to most importantly the flooding issue here.

Another disadvantage is people hoarding cash might be pushing it out with some trying to exchange it with foreign currency and this hampers or devalue the Naira more.

Nonetheless the redesigning will surely lead to inflation and if they get wrong this is time then the current management will go down in history as the worse we have ever had

Lol but that's the truth of it all. It wouldn't matter anything because that is not the issue about the Nigerian economy. The naira is not the issue but it is affected because the effect of corrupt leadership is the cog in the wheel of the Naira.


No. IMO I don't think so. And this is not the Nigerian problem. Fortification of institutions and make them work is most crucial.


Yeah I don't think it is rampant. People easily detect it. But then the challenge is in the government itself. The security architecture to apprehend and seriously punish offenders and criminals have been compromised. No government will claim not to know perpetrators of illicit businesses but the political will to execute punishment is lacking and this is important.


The government need to look at how to safe the devalued Naira from total worthless status. They
Imagine the CBN governor (that's the Nigerian Central Bank governor) was summoned to appear before the senate to answer to his financial policies and the reason for the free fall of naira and its depreciation, yet nothing is heard about that and he has not been fired.


Yeah it surely has some security that are visible to "common and frequent user". The printing is different, it has security thread and watermark like resistance.

Currency redesign could be a prelude to policies similar to india's bank note demonetisation of 2016.


Redesign makes it easier to identify previously issued paper currencies for demonetisation purposes.

It might also result in contraction of money supply due to start up time required to switch to producing a new line of paper currency.

Contraction of money supply is a policy some central banks of the world are currently folllowing in an effort to boost national economies.

There is a reason and motive behind most of these moves, which are not at all random.

It helps to know some basic fundamentals else people will have a very difficult time comprehending what is happening in the world.

Most economists believe that non-cash money is much safer. It is very difficult to rob a person, because the card has limits on withdrawals per day, week or month. Paper money needs to be constantly updated, because it loses its appearance, and this is a big expense for the treasury. Metal coins are more expensive to make than their face value.
We need to unite banks and create fast payment systems. In my country, taxes, utility bills have a QR code. I just need to open the bank application on my phone, point the camera and confirm the payment. This is called the fast payment system, which is supported by most banks.

Why are you people so against an idea that others don't give a damn about and see it as normal?
The western countries do the same over and over, China did the same thing 8 years ago, Jpana will do it the next year, every country does so as the technology has improved in both fields, making it both easier to create intricate patterns but also easier to copy old ones designed half a century ago.

It's this continuously bashing of everything the government does is bad going to help you, or are you going to strat denying even the good things as being god just because it's a politician doing so?


Probably you're not aware but banknotes get printed all the time (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/11/cbn-spends-n58-6-to-print-naira-notes/), in every country tons of notes are being withdrawn from circulation as they are being damaged every day, and the CB prints the replacement, so it will be the same thing long term.



Oh, the irony, when people dump their naira for other currencies evaluating it's bad for the economy when they are dumping it for Bitcoin again evaluating it, it's great for the economy. You just have to love it, no matter what some will do it will be bad because it must be bad!

This is related to psychology, most countries redesign their country's fiat note currency with the aim of increasing the interest of money holders and investors. if asked whether it will have an impact on the economy, it can say the impact will still be there but not so significant.

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there is also a country that redesigns its banknotes for security purposes (This is the quote I read in an article)

I initially thought that redesigning meant something like transforming the fiat currency itself, changing monetary policies, choosing a different name for the new currency or something in this line of thought. That, while risky, can help if the fiat situation is very bad. But from the article the op linked, it's clear that it's just literally about a new design for the banknotes. In that case, one possible advantage, as the article notes, might be less counterfeit money, but that's not going to have any profound impact on the currency, let alone the country's economy. I wish Nigeria focused on creating a favourable legislative climate for crypto usage and businesses instead of doing useless things like making new designs for their fiat banknotes.

Removing too much liquidity in circulation will reduce the rate of inflation. The government is very aware of what they are doing, this action is to combat the high rate of corruption as well. Because of the upcoming election, politicians have been hoarding money for their bribing activities. This action will force them to release that money or face a great loss. Either way, they are not going to be very pleased with this sudden news.   

From times to times the local fiat currency of a country must be redesigned through economical plans which have as goal to improve the economy of a country. Where I live we already had 7 different currencies, being the last and currently one active and alive for 28 years so far. I can say it was a good plan which made the country quite stable for a while, although we are entering a very serious stage of our economy due to populism, corruption and greediness from governments. But if implemented correctly in Nigeria, an economical plan like this can proportionate a very prosperous age for your nation.

In respect of Nigeria's Central Bank that announced a redesign of her currency, I am starting to think that there's some good in it. And I seem to agree with this twitter user's  (https://twitter.com/Letter_to_Jack/status/1585535392337608705)opinion on this. Here is what he said - This sudden Naira redesign and note-swap announcement by the CBN will do good wonders.  People will have to forfeit huge amounts of money that they’ve stored away in cash (majorly from corrupt process, intended for vote buying) or start doing giveaway. If you think you can use the money to buy properties, you lie! No dealer will accept huge cash from you from now, until January 31st when the old notes are useless. If you think you’d convert to dollars, forget it. No BDC(bureau de change) Operator will take huge amounts of cash from you. It’s also strategic if you consider the fact that the CBN is effecting the plan two months to a Presidential elections. All old Naira notes must be out of circulation in the 45 days between December 15- Jan 31st. In short it reduces the number of the currency in circulation thereby reducing inflation.

As long as there's no confidence in one's currency because of a lack of stability and loss of value, other strong currencies must triumph over theirs. This move by the Nigerian government is just an effort in futility. A move that will further hurt the already weak naira.

This news is coming from a Govt that just presented a budget that would be financed mainly with loans. The dollar price to Naira may go more than expected before December. The rate of inflation and commodity prices will skyrocket.

The specific reason the Nigerian government is telling is to curb the counterfeiting but some reports says that the issue is not that big and are blown out of proportion and in one of the old reports from the central bank i could find, says that less than 1% of the currencies are counterfeited.

Another aspect that is said for the change in design is control the ransom payment due to kidnapping and terrorism. I am not aware of the crime rate and how frequent are these issues to have a major change in the economy.

Depending on how big the reserves are to back up the money and to redesign it, the circulation of money that has been spread needs to be withdrawn or at least process the expiration date so that everyone knows which paper money is valid and which paper money the government has launched in the latest form. But in most cases it is to withdraw the long circulation of money that takes years of betting.

It somehow occurred to me that those who have stashed away huge amounts can take it to the bank and exchange it for the new notes. Or what do you think. It would be somehow to just abandon all old currency kept away.
The banks however will make it known on how to swap old notes in huge sums for the new notes. I hope and pray that this development contributes immensely to the case of counterfeiting and innseecurity in every possible form.

The economy of Nigerian was totally crashed.Not only Nigeria,most of the developing countries leads to this way of economic condition.This economic crash due to the continuous effect of Corona and Russia war.Russia war increased the oil value over most of the developing countries.People of Nigeria was not able to run their family with the recession.So the government made the good way to handle this economic situation.Other countries should look into this for their country economy.

Redesigning the country's currency does not change the economy, but can affect people's psychology... I adopt Neo liberal monetary policies, but I know that Keynesian monetary policies aim to influence the psychology of the masses with such solutions. In today's crisis period, "post Keynesian" discourses are starting to rise. Considered in this context, this strange method may have some benefit in terms of the "post Keynesian" method. Although it didn't sound like a very smart idea, I didn't see it as a harmful idea...

Redesigning of country's currency won't bring big changes into the economy. Some country's follow it as a way to fool people. In my country one such incident took place few years back. During that time the decision was made over night and made many people loss their lives. Now the government is planning to make some addition of god's photo into the currency. Some even stated such a move will solve economic problems. I don't know what to say with these foolish politicians.

In fact, improving the design of money does not affect economic growth, only to look quality and reliable as a legal tender, and keep it from obsolescence, if you want to improve the economy, one government focuses on increasing micro and macro businesses and tourism as national wealth assets. each

We can not be fooling ourselves about the redesign of fiat currency to generate an improvement of a country economy. it just a way of changing a glass that a water for another glass.
There will be no improve of the economy is the government can not redesign the unsuccessful monetary system

If what you are saying is true then why the currency of Nigeria is being subject for a new design? Redesigning a currency can surely improve the look of a currency but I don't think it has to do with security. Security will only depend on the person that is handling the currency. About the feature, how can you say that there is a change about it when it was still a currency?

It's usages are still going to be the same. If only that currency will now have a QR code in it then yes because we can just scan the code to pay and it can now possibly be use online. I am not sure if valuing the currency more like keeping it than spending it, helps the economy because that will likely happen if people like the new design of their currency.

Redesigning of country's currency doesn't have economic value but has other benefits, so it depends on the angle at which you want to look at it. The CBN of Nigeria is responsible for this, not the executive and must have prepared it in their yearly budget, though it is unknown to the general public because their own budgets are not open like the other arms of government.

This is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, even the US which many see as a role model often redesigns its currency. This will curb many issues like counterfeiting, money laundering and hoarding, and ransom payments, and aids better accountability among others. Everything shouldn't directly be about the economic benefits only.

No doubt, redesigning the Naira has many advantages. In many ways, it will help curb many illegitimate activities by rendering funds that have been held by criminals useless once the old notes become illegal. Sure, this is a great move, but ill-timed.

Certainly, there are also ulterior motives for this last-hour policy. And that’s the concern of many Nigerians. That this step is an economic necessity at this point

Again, why pull up this kind of policy when the economic crunches are still biting the people so hard? This, of course, will add more layers of suffering to the masses

I can tell you that this will not have any positive impact on the economy of the country even the smallest. This could be an act related to the quality of the old currency or to distract the public in order to cover up the current government's mismanagement. Currency redesign is not uncommon, it happens frequently in developed countries but the problem in Nigeria is probably different. Instead of focusing on changing the currency's design, they should focus on improving the economy and people's lives. Distributing new currency as well as revoking old models would be costly and time consuming.

Knowing that Nigeria is one of the countries with many politician looters, one small effect is that Redesigning the currency can render all the money that some of them have stolen and kept outside the banks say in private residency, buried in a pit or kept in a box somewhere, A new design will make all those useless. Since many of them will not be able to deposit in the bank for a change to the new designs without being flagged, the money becomes useless.

This is so laughable because the redesigning of the currency notes has nothing to add to the development of the nations (GDP). A country that has 90% rate of unemployment, 90% rate of insecurity and a very high level of inflation hitting up the country not to talk about the value of the Naira notes in which they plan or should I say they have started spending billions of dollars to redesign means to the poor masses. I think this is another good opportunity they want to utilize to steal more funds so they can channel it to their selfish campaigns since they have realized that the youths are against their political agendas. As a Nigerian, I can attest that the reason for this development is nothing but for stealing and nothing else.

I think the Government has made it known why they are doing this even if most of the citizens might not agree with the move to redesign the 200, 500, and 1000 Naira Notes. They claim that there are too many of those monies in the hands of Politicians that are planning to buy election votes in the coming 2023 General election and we know what the story was with the last concluded primary elections of some 2 major parties.

Also, the government mentioned that, with many of the Kidnappings that have happened recently, Billions of Naira are in the hands of the Bandits and their sponsors and this will either all of them to return those old designs to the bank or choose to lose them when those notes expire as Nigerian Legal tender by 31 January 2023.

I too believe there would have been a better way to address the insecurity Issue the country is facing and deal with the corrupt politicians instead of spending money that the country doesn't have on redesigning and printing new currencies which would have been used for other very important areas of the economy like the flood issue the country is currently facing.
 


 

It's great that someone has finally figured out the main reason why the Nigerian government is looking to redesign their fiat currency. I think this is also one of the good ideas to help the government recover that huge amount of money. But whether the government has calculated it, means they are sure that it is a large enough amount to affect the economy needs to be revoked and spend millions of dollars just to redesign and release new currency. Or is it just an excuse for them to cover up their poor management. Besides, they also need to have a policy against this to make sure it doesn't happen with the new currency.

I don't see any benefit at all. It's just unnecessary cost to the country. How can it contribute to the development of the economy?
Let me tell you funny thing we witnessed. In 2005 Turkish government deleted six zeros from currency and mention it like money is more valuable. They perpetuated this misconception for a long time. In fact, nothing had changed. The only advantage was that calculations were easier. Trillion, quadrillion was hard to deal with, even reading the big bucks was challenging. After 6 zeros were discarded, of course coins were printed again. First, banknotes with "New Turkish Lira" were used, then when the transition period was over, new money was printed once again and the "Turkish Lira" was adopted. All this had a cost. Even after 17 years, there are still people who pronounce money with the number before the six zeros were deleted.

The Turkish story will be like that of Nigeria. There is no need to change the Nigerian currency because Nigeria is virtually not producing anything or exporting to exchange for foreign currency or to improve the GDP, so how will change come? It is just a rebranded currency with nothing to improve on the economy the cost of printing is even going to be a burden to the economy.

From the Nigerian experience also, it is looking like political decision to make some politicians go through hard times and restrategize for the election that is close and this may change their performance. This move is not economical. In 1983 when the current president was the military head of state, he also changed the currency to frustrate the politicians that he overthrown through coup. The political climate may be playing out again, this is the sentiment and emotional analysis in Nigeria by political analysis.

I do not think redesigning the national currency note will help improve the economic situation of a country.  I see it as only cosmetic to an aging face.  It will only create an illusion that the currency of a country had appreciated because the government set the initial value as that but in reality, nothing had changed.  There is far more needed to improve than just redesigning of the currency notes.  If the government is willing to improve its economic state then the government should plan for programs that will help develop the economy.  They should launch profitable ventures, projects that will secure jobs for every graduate, partnerships, improve the import and export system proficiency and clear the government of corrupt officials.  That way there is a huge chance that the economy of a country will improve.

More or less everyone knows what needs to be done to improve the economy. At least they have ideas. However, the economies of many countries are bankrupt. Redesign is a waste of resources, as in this example. They need to be able to devote resources to reforms and constructive programmes. When economic decision makers continue to grapple with them, the result will always be frustration. You don't even need to be an economist to know this. Measures taken to save the day. And the consequences have always been damaging.

There could be aesthetic factors that affects a person's decision to use currency or not. However, I do not think redesigning your currency's appearance is gonna cut it for people to start spending more and therefore combat inflation. You have to show the people that your money is more worthy of being spent than being saved, which is really easier said than done considering even the superpowers are having trouble finding this sweet equilibrium between buying and selling. All in all, the point is that the money to be spent in figuring out a new design for your money could actually be used for something else that could help the people of Nigeria.

I have been doing numismatics and bonnistics since childhood :)
There are also banknotes of Nigerri in the collection. In general, you can find their scans on the Internet to understand what I'm talking about. So - until 2019, virtually all banknotes look, to put it mildly ... cheap and somehow "artificial". There is no sense of significance and weight of money. The new 100 naira banknotes, I have them in 2019, already look more attractive. Let's just say - banknotes, and coins, in a sense, are part of the culture, history, and part of the "clothes of the country." For someone it is poor and modest, for someone it is pathetic and with a claim to "high cost" but cheap. And someone has neat, informative, pleasant to own. It seems to me that the attractiveness of the currency affects the image of the country, creates an additional positive message, makes people respect the money of their country.

I think it could just boost the economy, depending on how things are. But somehow, I feel like it's just going to be a waste. That is, in that way, people who lack can benefit?

Surely there are some people who support the redesign of money, but surely there are also those who do not support it.

Pros and Cons are always there and happen to everything in this world, so don't be surprised when there are people who support something and others who don't. Because those who support must have a reason and there is a little will from their hearts that they can achieve through it. Likewise with those who do not support which may be due to the absence of benefits they can get. So it's a common thing that happens to every thing when something has to be remade.

But the politicians which are the people that are in those positions supposedly to take the difficult decisions to improve the country will never do that, why? Because it is political suicide, no one wants to hear that in order for the country to recover great sacrifices need to be made and that very difficult times are ahead of them, what they want to hear is that somehow things are going to improve on their own, so politicians prefer to not take action and hope for the whole thing to not explode when they are the ones in charge, this is obviously bad for the country but good for themselves and their economic interests.

The nation is dealing with a number of issues, so starting with the redesign of the fiat currency is a step in the right direction for solving those issues. I don't see the currency change harming the people because the justifications are clearly stated and justified, but rather helping the nation's economy.

Since the news broke, there has been an increase in the naira's price in relation to the dollar. This will continue to be an issue since those who have been hoarding or hiding naira notes for a while would want to convert them for dollars because they won't be usable beyond the central bank's specified period of time. Now that dollars are in strong demand, their exchange rates to naira would increase dramatically. After the currency has been redesigned, the price equivalent will change vice versa.

Politicians can never be completely trusted, but it's possible that they have a secret plan to rebuild the currency. After everything our country has been through, we may have to deal with another political crime from our leadership if their true intent is not transparent to the general public. As of right now, it appears that they are moving the nation's economy in the right direction.



The Nigerian government is redesigning the fiat money for a number of reasons, including this. Many Nigerians have fallen victim to being conned by counterfeit naira notes, which is a big concern for the country's citizens. The highest denomination notes in the country, the N500 and N1000 notes, make up the majority of counterfeit currency and have done a lot of damage to people. If this was one of the primary reasons they decided to redesign the currency, I have no issue with it.

It won't have any effect on the vote-buying spree of politicians, since politicians can just exchange their old notes for a new ones and then continue buying votes.  If this is one of the major reason why the government is redesigning notes, I found the people behind that government laughable.


So the new design will be use to trace criminals, still, criminals is possibly one step ahead of the government, I am sure since one of the replies stated that many government officials are looters, these criminals will just pay someone from the banking institution to clear all traces of money exchanged for the new notes.


They choose that one because it is easier to implement and easier to loot money for the development and production of that new note.  The government should focus on how to improve their GDP.

A corrupt government will always find a way to get easy money and printing a new design money might be one of the best option for them.
I'm also wondering why there's a need to redesign the currency where in fact it doesn't change the value of it.

If they really want to make their currency more powerful it's better for them to focus on important matter on how to deal with their economic problem. In my country, we printed a lot of new money almost every new president they redesign it but look at our currency right now, it is still weak.

On brighter side it creates demand since there are investors who want to see good design on some notes and might their action can gather attention from global investors. On darkest side maybe those corrupt politician just use this alibi for them to get more money from government funds.

But nothing happen unto this plan even how good the beautification they do if their official is corrupt since for sure there's no investor will spend their investment on a country if they know that they cannot get huge benefits especially if their officials are so greedy on money.

As a good citizens i m to my country and with the way country are going currently redesigning our currency is the best option & decision taken so far, have you considered NGN circulation?
Yes, Let me break it down for you to understand why it's very important the redesigned our currency;
1. Our currency have been HODL for long by ex Presidents and Governors.
2. Those who were in power since 1984 have just practically hide our currencies to themselves and to their entire generation thinking the currency would remain the same continually.
3. To avoid bribery and corruption in this coming general presidential elections via 2023, Those political parties that claims they have money to bribe young youth with their stolen money will be no way and useless for them
4. We will have enough supply which might likely reduced the country hardship
5. Those Our looted funds will be invalid and useless to those who hold and stole from the poor Nigerians
6. This will restructure Nigeria after the General presidential Election, because those politician who think they have money could be kicked out and possibly it may leads to readjustment of some unfavorable constitution and condition sets in our jurisdiction & country.
7. Those Kidnappers that kept hiding their selves would have no option for those money to be entirely wasted, and with this they would be all reveal. There are more benefits to be listed

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They have already Issued a notification to market women and traders holding money in their locality to make a deposit (https://fij.ng/article/fidelity-bank-gives-customers-deadline-to-deposit-old-naira-notes/) to the bank with only newly created account of maximum NGN 5M and old account of maximum of NGN 50M (https://regtechafrica.com/nigeria-new-naira-cbn-limits-cash-deposits-for-individual-accounts/) in other to have the new notes collected, therefore i don't think changing Nigerian Notes would have any bad effects on the poor Nigerian rather only to the politician who is holding billions and trillion Naira to their respective home.
As a matter of fact, i don't have any Naira note in my home all savings in Bitcoin and Usdt so i advised every smart Nigerian who is in this forum to do same and wait till the new Naira Note go in circulation or Generally acceptable. Possibly you could leave few NGN to your account for just PoS & shopping transactions.

WE MUST HAVE A NEW NIGERIA, AND MAKE THOSE WHO THOUGHT THEY HAVE STOLEN AND HODL NGN USELESS.

There are some questions to this here. Is hodl of the currency the issue ? I think not so . If the people are corrupt and not check they will go back to hodl again if they release the old currency with them. This is for the government to make laws against such and follow it up like certain amount is not to be in hodl physically with people then it can be fine that way but hodl not problem.

Do you really think that people who have huge amount of money in their vault will struggle to change them into new notes?

Government can say but again I want to mention the demonetization in India completely made all the printed money to become obsolete overnight and they claimed people who is having black money will no longer be able to convert them but in reality its a biggest failure and politicians and ex politician easily got the replacement even before the common citizen so it conclude the change will not make any impact but on the worst case it will destroy the small scale business due to lack of money in circulation among the middle class people.

Governments resort to changing denominations of local currency notes or all denominations for a good reason, which is often a result of the expansion of the parallel market and the inability of the state to respond to the movement of liquidity in the market. Activists in the parallel market do not make automatic transfers through banks or transfer media, but rather use cash in all operations, and even saving is in the form of cash or in-kind assets. In order to collect this money and ensure its movement, the state can issue new securities.
This helps support the market and boost the state budget with liquidity that was considered out of order.

Well this investigation was carried out by EFCC the more research they go the more funds they discovered by EX-president and governors or even those that was in power, so the only way they thought is the right thing to do in order to damage those looted funds was to set up those principles to enable them fight to the end and make those looted fund useless. So to me is the best choice, and note it that any old note with any Nigerian has a limited time of expiry date that means after that date is off then no more deposit and is obsolete and can't be used for any exchange of goods and services.

If redesigning the currency comes with newly imposed bylaws to improve its regulation and inflation rate, as well as other economic aspect of the currency then yes. Otherwise just like what someone said here, it's just going to be a better-looking turd. I dare say that frequent redesigning of a country's currency could even be a sign of its economic decline, as this is most common in third-world countries where corruption and graft is rampant, take for example, Philippines, who now had multiple alterations in its currency design since 2010. I don't need to tell you how rampant corruption is in that country.

Circling back to the topic, other than the aesthetic aspect being changed it has never been proven that changing a currency's design led to more people spending it.

If I should be honest, I see no difference in the new notes created and instead of making the public look like fools, why not stick with the old currency? I doubt this redesigning will stop corrupt politicians from looting or hoarding funds because when this new ones have been accepted as legal tender come Dec 15, and the hype and fuss has died down, business would flow as usual.
 
 According to critics, it would do the naira no profit if it's redesigned but still has no value. This all boils down to how corrupt our government can be. Imagine spending a whooping amount of #218bn just to achieve this?

https://i.ibb.co/T2vNx1b/New-Naira-2-1-279x400.jpg (https://ibb.co/T2vNx1b)

If these are really the reasons given by the NIGERIA government then I think it is very reasonable and they are doing something good for the country and its people. Of course, this will not guarantee that they will reverse the problems they are talking about and there is no guarantee that this change will help the country's economy but at least it shows they are looking for a solution to this problem.

Corruption is happening in all governments especially in 3rd world countries, people increasingly lose confidence in their government but ultimately the people themselves have no better solution. So let them do what they think is good for the country, just because they are corrupt doesn't mean they don't care about the country because without the country they would have no chance of corruption.

Highly doubtful that redesign will have any effect, since buying power will remain the same. The only effect it can have - in future, such old banknotes might be interested for notaphilies. Another example - EU countries that has refused from their national currency and adopted Euro. This can be considered as a redesign also, and a major redesign. Did it made any improvements in economy? The answer is no.

It all depends on why they are doing it....

If they want to improve the security measures on the currency to prevent counterfeiting .. it might help to boost the economy. You only want citizens to use the legal currency that are minted or printed by the government. (Counterfeit currencies inflate the supply of the local currency) - These illicit activities steal market share from legitimate businesses and undermine innovation, with negative implications for economic growth.

Then again.... if you increase the denomination of the currency to adapt to hyperinflation (Like the Zimbabwian 1 Trillion Dollar notes) ... you will set yourself up for failure.   :D :D :D

The main concern that they have considered in redesigning their bank note is to decrease the number of said money in circulation which is.. very counterintuitive. They just spent some resources in redesigning their note, put it out in circulation, and tried to retrieve back those old notes. They just spent more to gain nothing. If Nigeria really want to improve their economy, why not try to invest on other things that can make actual money by not printing it? I don't see any point in this honestly.

Yes to some extent, the primary reason why the federal government decided to redesign the naira notes was because the economy of the nation was down and a lot of citizens were complaining about the lack of cash flow which is due to the currency not circulating as it should have. Redesigning the currency will bring a rapid increase in the circulation of money in the nation because some people who have been holding the old not would want to exchange it with the new note or spend it since a time has been given by the federal government for all old notes to be returned to the banks or it becomes useless to the owner. Since the development, a lot has changed and the citizens can attest to this great change which the introduction of the new notes brings.

The major aim of the redesign is simply to force those money hoarders to bring their money out and for CBN to start spending less money on printing naira notes. This single move by the CBN governor has helped the naira to appreciate against the dollar price.


The CBN won't have used the word redesigning of the naira note, they would have asked all of her citizens to return any naira note that has 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 dates to the bank than giving Nigerians hope to expect a new naira note design.

Monetary velocity and anti fraud measures, I suppose it could be a positive but it cant alter the economy only the strict circulation of paper.  It should be the case that most value in an economy in this day and age is via balance sheet transfer never being printed or needing paper transfer.  Nigeria is a member of OPEC they certainly have access to the world economy and concentrating in expanding their national economy to be inclusive of all levels of society will be accumaltive   If people are able to avoid paper its probably the greatest positive for raising monetary velocity and increasing the efficiency of pricing in the economy, reducing simply the time to count money physically could represent value and time saved, etc.

Planned execution could help with the improvement of the economy, but the same isn't assured. It's been six years and economist used to say that the effect of overnight demonetisation haven't left our economy. It made the complete country struggle and it wasn't a well planned one. Stating different reasons the demonetisation took place and yet none of the objectives mentioned have got fulfilled.

Actually nothing much special about the redesigning the currency it's just about it colors and nothing much which I thought the previous note was even far more better than the current printed notes. I don't even know how on earth they couldn't came up with a reasonable design looking from above pictures there's nothing difference between both notes in facts the new notes looking more of a counterfeit money, we were thinking FG should have given a bounty (Contest) for individual to design and post maybe after much more, they would select the best design and pay off the Best designers for the country to have a better looking Naira Notes instead of just changing colors.

If I may add sir, I think There are valid and valid reasons why everyone should use legal currency to avoid counterfeit Money.

This is a serious problem. Not only does it clog circulation, but it can cause serious problems for unsuspecting people who might end up losing real money.

Redesigning a country's banknote can have both positive and negative effects on that country's economy. Enhancing the security features of a country's banknotes helps combat counterfeiting operations in terms of production as well as increases the overall confidence in banknotes.

Rebranding the naira will not change anything or reduce inflation, all the government is doing is just deceiving the people of Nigeria and enriching their pocket with this kind of action,since I don't really see any difference from the the previous one,just a change of color. The money they said was used to redesign the naira is to big that they would have used it for a better project for the masses and not for resigning currencies when there is high rate of poverty in their country.

Well in the other side,it is helpful to the country in the sense that,Nigeria politicians steals and hoard money in their house and so many funny places not banks because they will be apprehended for been in possession of such amount of money. So the redesign of the naria will make these looters to loose their funds,since they will not be able to change this huge sum of money once,and the money will later become useless if not changed.It will also help to circulate money since money kept will be brought out to change.

I think redesigning paper money is not possible to move the economy forward. I mean, will inflation go down? Will redesigning banknotes make society better?

I think it's the same, want the money to be redesigned or not.

The redesigning of the fiat currency notes does in fact help the economy in a way. It does help reduce counterfeit currency in circulation which in turn helps in reducing inflation as counterfeit notes are pushed and flooded in the society. The new notes would also have new watertight security marks that would deter people from making new counterfeits notes.
That fact alone helps the economy of any nation.

It's like will repainting my house to blue colour safeguard it from Earthquake? :D it's nothing but a remedy designed to disguise the common folks that things will b alright if we do this so we should definitely try this. Nothing other than that. It's more like making people stupid by taking their attention away from the main problem and a lot of governments have been doing this lately.

I guess this is already answered by a few members already, it somehow helps the economy since it's standard for any country to change the design of their currency to lessen the volume of counterfeited notes and to keep counterfeiting levels low. This also happens just to change the design or just to make currencies look presentable since it showcases national identity. In our country, they redesign the bill every new term of a new president and add a new watermark to the currency.

I would guess that this would be a temporary solution though, it is not helping the nation on the fast track, plus the cost of printing new money is not that easy neither, it actually costs a lot to print new money, and take the old money and either burn it or whatever they do.

It means that it is not a good solution to any problems at all, there is a big need that we should be focusing on finding the core of the problem that caused the need for one. I believe that the best way would be keeping the interest high, while taxes even higher. Any rich person or a company avoids paying taxes by moving their money away?

Tax them even higher for each business they do in your country. Companies can avoid paying taxes as much as they want, but they will be forced to, even seize bank accounts, when you are soft on rich because they may take their money and run away, that creates a problem for poor who pays for the difference, fix that, and you have yourself a nation with no financial trouble.

Redesigning banknotes is still meaningless in containing inflation, I personally do not know what underlies the country's government's plan to redesign banknotes, but if the reason is to prevent the circulation of counterfeit money against this currency. As far as I know, this is also not necessarily successful in limiting the circulation of counterfeit money. Because counterfeiting money will still be carried out by people who have procedures and have the tools to make counterfeit money.

First, I don't believe that the redesigning of money should be an issue for any country, they do it often. Even if there is an issue, it would be little compared to a lot of its advantages in countries that are battling corruption, money laundering, kidnapping for ransom, and human trafficking amongst others. I would elaborate on this because this topic was borne out of the announcement of the CBN of Nigeria to redesign some naira notes, which is very acceptable to me because of what the country is battling, including the political vote buying during elections that is not being mentioned in any other countries of the world. However, the redesigning will not affect all the naira notes but three notes out of the eight naira notes, which is not a big deal to me, except for how people and media took it.

Aside from the positive side, I'm particularly against any economists' position against the redesigning of the naira notes. I read a lot of opposition then, but it's good to know that redesigning is not the same as printing more money. The plight of the CBN was that money is not circulating compared to the amount injected into the economy, and this might cause inflation. Could you imagine that only about 1/3 of the amount printed is in circulation, where are the others? People are hoarding it illegally of course.

A resealable country would surely act, which is what the CBN in collaboration with the Nigeria government did.

From my country I know that currency redesigns are done within 10 year time spans  to increase security of the bank notes. A new design also means the chance to include more anti counterfeiting measures. This doesn't mean that the old currency design are not being accepted anymore. Even today I see a lot of old bills that people had at home and didn't use in a long time. Only when the notes are being deposited at a bank they will be taken out of circulation. I am not really sure if the price of creating new designs and printing new notes is smaller than the economical damage of counterfeiting old notes. A new design also means to make someone else happy as  there can be new pictures on the notes. The main issue I have with new currency is that it seems to reduce the value of the old currency. When cleaning out the basement of my grandparents 2 years ago we found some old British Pounds and some Swiss Francs. The notes were probably 15-20 years old and I went to the bank to get them exchanged. They told me because these notes are old and not in circulation anymore she can't give me the full price anymore. We lost like 25% of the value only because the notes were old.

In my opinion the redesign of a country currency note will not have an impact or improve the economic system, the economy will grow positively if there is a balance of the production, distribution, and consumption process, some countries have changed the currency note and the most common is reducing numbers for example from 1000 is eliminated 3 zero to 1, and after the implementation there is no impact.

Economic Improve is a long journey that requires a lot of things, the economy can improve if supported by stable political conditions, then good infrastructure and so on, and currency note is a small thing that does not affect the economy too much.

Reading through all comments, it suffices that the redesign of the currency note does líttle to improve the economic stand of the country.
From my perspective however, I think the redesign would help checkmate neferous activities of those who have hoarded cash, printed counterfeit cash, and stached ransom from vices away. The redesign will create a kind of almost equillibrum between legal and illegal financiers. This should help improve even if a little, the economy of the country.

This is all deception. I don't expect "redesigning the paper currency" to fix the deteriorating economy. It's a circumvention of reality and filling more dirty money in the government's pocket after bleaching it. What difference does redesigning the currency make if the economy is collapsing? no thing.
Paper currencies do not carry value in themselves, and you can print as many banknotes as you want, so all repairs or redesigns will do nothing in the event of deflation or inflation problems.
These are all government tricks.

If redesigning the paper currency improves the economy then there are no poor countries, the work is simple but the results are very good, this is wrong thinking and will never be proven, even though the government redesigns the paper currency every year I'm sure there won't be any impact on economy.

Maybe it's a lie or avoidance of a government's responsibility in running the country. But if you read all the previous comments, you will see that the real reason given by the Nigerian government is that the redesign of the currency makes perfect sense. If what Adbitco says is true, then the government is doing the right thing for the nation of Nigeria, and if they succeed, then it will improve their country's economy. He is from Nigeria so i believe what he said is true.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5418438.msg61341499#msg61341499

There is no use in redesigning banknotes to stop inflation. I think the current government is aware of this, they may have a different strategy, not for inflation. If the economy is developing to design paper money, all developing countries should start doing it as soon as possible. Very specific solutions should be proposed to prevent inflation. Society and Government should act together on ideas and solutions, This seems impossible, but it doesn't sound convincing to me.

Rather than reprinting it with a new design, maybe the current government is more interested in making CBDCs because it refers to technological sophistication, the government is now able to map banknotes so this has been done by many developing countries. Although not much different from paper money, the fact is that CBDC does not mean it can stop inflation.

Based on all that, inflation is still a delicious spice for fiat, while for the paper money system there is no solution to prevent inflation other than minimizing it.

This is a controversial viewpoint since the government of Nigeria believes that redesigning the currency notes is the most important thing to accomplish at this crucial juncture in their country's economic realities. Their current government continues to display varying degrees of shortcomings and, most frequently, impunity. This action is yet more unmistakable proof that the Nigerian government is incapable of managing a population endowed with all it takes to rank among the top in the world economy. Their government is also lacking in competence when it comes to managing country resources.

Unfortunately, nations like the United States take similar steps to raise the standard and value of their money, whereas Nigeria does not.

Yeah the Nigerian government made this decision to combat the high rate of counterfeit money in circulation and also to combat hoarding, it turns out most of the corrupt politicians are hoarding tons of naira notes for their selfish interests instead injecting it in the economy for growth.
This sudden decision by the government to change the notes forced majority to bring out these notes they have safely hoard in strategic locations. It is sudden but a good decision. Like you said, it something that should be done in every new administration.

The idea may look good but there are some disturbing pattern in the process.
1. There was no consensus on the process among financial personnel, it was all between the Governor and the president, which is considered inappropriate.
2. Some view the decision as a witch hunt against those who denied him the opportunity to run for president on the same basis that the same governor expressed interest in the presidency, who should be investigated.
3. A similar redesign was done 40 years ago when the president approved it, which cannot be attributed to any changes in the currency's value.
4. In view of the fact that the redesign of the naira is very expensive and the country makes complaints about the state of its economy, why the decision now?

Techniques like this are commonplace and have been carried out in many countries, of course to improve the economy not only redesign of currency, real things are needed such as infrastructure, government subsidies, training assistance and so on, and to improve the economy requires a long process which cannot be instant like a redesign of a countries currency.

The fact that will continue to occur is that the value of money will continue to decline, in my country of annual inflation can reach 8% per year so that around 12 years there will be an increase in price of 100% which means the value of money is reduced by 50%, the short road that is done is to cut the value or kill zero , but according to the experience of many countries this does not help or improve the economy.

Thank you for notifying me. I have read the post that you mentioned.
It seems that there are really some benefits from what I have read, but we do not know the intention of the government completely and transparently. If the current government is good and prevents the old politicians from exchanging the billions that they stole from the people or offering bribes, then this can be done. That things go well, but if they accept the bribe and allow the corrupt to exchange their old banknotes that they stole with new ones, in this case nothing will change.
I hope the government will be good and lead towards reforming the country.

In my opinion, to improve the economy, with the growth of investment from within and outside the country, the country of China is a country that has good positive economic growth for almost 20 years so that it is now a developed country, and the main factor is that they open up the ease of investing, even for small businesses who come from other countries they also help.