House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to reinstate the usage of coins as legal tender in the country.
This followed the adoption of a motion submitted in plenary by a member from Bauchi state, Mr Umar Lawal.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, re-introduced the N1 and 50 kobo currency, as well as a new N2 coin, during his economic reforms.
Lawal complained that despite the Federal Government’s massive budgetary expenditure on the creation of the coin, he said the currency appear to be extinct.
“The day-to-day business transactions of ordinary Nigerians have been considerably affected as a paucity of coins and other lesser denominations have resulted in prices being summed up to the nearest naira equivalent, a condition best defined as inflation in economic terms,” he said.
Injecting low denominations and coins into the economy, he believes, will go a long way toward reducing price inflation and stabilizing the economy.
RN