“You are a bad economist” – Sanusi blasts Obasanjo over comment on N5,000 note

THE Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, yesterday, intensified his campaign for the introduction of N5,000 note, by saying that comments by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo on the proposed currency restructuring was incorrect and showed that the former president is a bad economist.

Speaking at the Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN, in Abuja, Sanusi said Obasanjo’s comments came to him as a shock, considering the fact that it was during his tenure as president that majority of the country’s highest currency denominations were printed.

According to Sanusi, those opposing the introduction of the N5,000 were ignorant of its benefits, adding that its introduction would lead to efficiency of the country’s payment system since the policy was targeted at a small number of Nigerians handling huge cash.

He said Obasanjo’s assertion that the introduction of higher bills would stimulate inflation, was not true, stating that if this assertion was true, Nigeria would have gone into extinction within the eight year period that Obasanjo introduced the N100, N200, N500 and N1000 notes.

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