By Diana Omueza
The Centre for Ability, Rehabilitation and Empowerment (CARE) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to publish daily disbursement of new naira notes to commercial banks for transparency.
Dr Chike Okogwu, the Executive Director, CARE said this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
Okogwu said that the daily report would guide Nigerians on the banks to visit as well curb the alleged bank hoarding of the new notes.
“We at CARE are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately direct the CBN, through the CBN Governor Mr Godwin Emefiele to publish daily reports of how many new notes get to each bank.
“So that Nigerians can track the new notes and bank hoarding will be reduced or eliminated,” he said.
He said that while the naira redesign policy was a laudable move by the CBN, the scarcity of the new notes was negatively affecting the masses and stalling day to day business transactions.
He also decried that while Nigerians were finding transactions difficult, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) were finding daily activities extremely difficult in addition to their challenges.
“Persons with Disabilities are not having it easy with the scarcity of the naira notes currently being experienced nationwide.
“Many PWDs cannot buy foodstuffs, medication, pay transportation when they need to move and carry out other necessary functions required to live a normal empowered life.
“The banks are not prioritising PWDs who are suffering twice from the entire financial crisis,” he said.
Okogwu appealed to CBN to ensure flow of the new naira notes and to mandate banks to prioritise PWDs in accordance to the provisions of the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act, 2019. (NAN)
