Currency In Circulation Falls By N107.08bn

Latest figures on currency from the Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that currency in circulation fell by N107.08billion in July 2022.

This is a drop from N3.35trillion in April to N3.24trillion in July 2022.

According to the CBN, the CIC which stood at N3.33tn in May fell to N3.25tn in June.

Currency in circulation is defined as currency outside the vaults of the central bank; that is, all legal tender currency in the hands of the general public and in the vaults of the Deposit Money Banks, according to the apex bank.

The CBN stated that it employed the “accounting/statistical/withdrawals and deposits approach” to compute the currency in circulation in Nigeria.

This approach involves tracking the movements in currency in circulation on a transaction-by-transaction basis.

It said for every withdrawal made by a DMB at one of CBN’s branches, an increase in the CIC was recorded, adding that for every deposit made by a DMB at one of CBN’s branches, a decrease in the CIC was recorded.

The transactions are all recorded in the CBN’s CIC account, and the balance on the account at any point in time represents the country’s currency in circulation.

According to the apex bank, analysis of the currency in circulation showed that a large and increasing proportion of the Nigerian currency outside the commercial banking system was held by the general public hoarding a lot of the new banknotes.