No society can do without coins because of its role in facilitation of transactions. The coins reduced the tendency to approximate transactions to the nearest bank notes, makes change available for daily transactions; it was in the line of these that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) re-introduced the coins on February 28, 2007, as part of the economic reforms. Then, N50, N20, N10 and N5 bank notes as well as N1 and 50 Kobo coins were re-issued with new designs, while a new N2 coin was introduced.
The CBN directed that all banks should pay two percent of all withdrawals in coins, which means for instance, that a customer withdrawing N20,000 from his bank account would go home with N400 worth of coins. It also directed the banks not to accept coins as deposits from the public until further notice, saying that the coins needed to be kept in circulation for sometime. Before the re-introduction of coins, goods were priced in multiples of fives because of the dearth of coins and this affected price levels greatly. No goods could be bought for N1 because no such denomination existed, so prices of the lowest- priced goods were raised to N5 and N10. Unfortunately and sadly, we are back to that situation.
The coin has suffered untold rejection and abuse from the public because Nigerians are not better educated and enlightened on the need to have it in circulation. The situation whereby the naira notes have been turned into writing sheets, even by those working in the bank, stained by meat sellers and squeezed by buses and taxi driver has worsen the state of the naira hence the need for the use of coins to be enforced.
Hussain Obaro,
Ilorin, Kwara State.