sanusi lamido sanusi : brief overview on the central bank of nigeria ’ s proposed currency restructuring exercise speech by mr sanusi lamido sanusi, governor of the central bank of nigeria, at the press briefing on the proposed currency restructuring exercise “ project cure ”, lagos, 23 august 2012. * * * protocol gentlemen of the press, i welcome you to the briefing on the currency restructuring exercise being implemented by the central bank of nigeria ( cbn ). before i proceed, i would like to use this opportunity to express our gratitude to you all for the support you have given to the bank thus far, by helping in disseminating information about our policies, programmes and activities. i urge you to continue along this path of fruitful collaboration and support in the interest of our economy. i am delighted to brief you today on the cbn ’ s proposed currency restructuring exercise, which we have code - named “ project cure ”. as you all know, one of the core mandates of the cbn, like monetary authorities across the world, is the issuance and management of the legal tender currency. this implies that the cbn is responsible for the entire process of currency production and it includes the following elements : design, production, storage, distribution and the disposal of unfit banknotes. an important component of our responsibility is ensuring an optimal currency structure in terms of efficiency, cost effectiveness and balanced mix of various denominations. it entails the cbn being responsive to the changing needs of the economy and keeping pace with evolving trends in contemporary currency technology - world. in addition, in line with international best practices, monetary authorities are required to review their nations ’ currencies at intervals of between five ( 5 ) and eight ( 8 ) years. this is done in order to address, among other factors, inevitable weaknesses and challenges identified in the circulating banknotes and coins. these factors usually arise from innovations in technology, aesthetics, security considerations and so on. in the case of nigeria ’ s currency, the following table clearly shows the period some denominations have been circulating without any major review : s / n 1. 2. 3. 4. denomination n10 n20 n50 n1, 00 date restructured december 1999 november 2000 april 2001 october 2005 no. of years in nigeria, the last comprehensive review of the currency was carried out in 2005. it resulted in the introduction of the n20 polymer banknote followed by the varnishing of the n5, n10 and n50 paper bank

life satisfaction. the nordics are also high - tax countries. so far high taxes have been willingly paid, because the middle classes feel that they have benefited from the welfare state. the socio - economic position of the middle classes is currently threatened which may reduce the willingness to pay taxes implying a deterioration of trust in the process. the southern european countries, in turn, seem to be low - trust, economically less - inclusive countries with citizens enjoying a comparatively low life satisfaction. this result can be interpreted positively. implementing structural reforms in order to make the economies more competitive, improving the governance and the quality of institutions, and reducing corruption would help to build up trust and, over time, improve life satisfaction. it is of course true that these kinds of comparisons may suffer from a number of caveats. for example, the selection of countries, indicators and time periods may be arbitrary. the oecd index of product market regulation, the oecd index of employment protection legislation, the fraser institute index for economic freedom and the kof index of globalization. these four indicators are highly correlated. the eurobarometer survey is conducted by the european commission twice a year. the face - to - face interviews are made on a randomly selected population of around 1000 persons in each country. the results should be statistically significant. the correlation between these four indicators for trust in political institutions is high. bis central bankers ’ speeches trust, finance, and good society let me now turn to my final theme ; that is, the role of finance in a good society. some of you may wonder what in earth has finance to do with a good society, especially now when we all are witnessing the huge damage caused by the global financial crisis over the past few. the connecting factor between finance and the good society is trust. the whole monetary and financial system is based on trust. trust is the foundation for monetary exchange, and monetary exchange is the foundation of a market economy. paper money has value only as long as the money holders can be secure that all others believe that the money can be used for transactions at a future date. the emergence of the universally accepted means of payment, in turn, was precondition for multilateral exchange and thereby for the distribution of labour. the origin of the term credit word is a latin word credo, translated “ i believe ”. this illustrates the intimate relationship between trust and finance. no bank can operate if the depositors do not trust that money deposited at the bank can be withdrawn at