A former Director of Currency Operations at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ahmed Bello Umar, stated on Tuesday that he never saw the minutes of the meeting of CBN management on the naira redesign.
Umar, who claimed that he signed the memorandum for the redesign of the naira in 2022 when asked by his lawyer to comment on the October 26, 2023, meeting of the Committee of Governors (CoGs) of the CBN, responded by saying: “I have not seen the minutes of the meeting; it was only circulated among members of the CoG.”
Umar stated this while giving evidence in the trial of the immediate past Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, who is being tried for allegedly redesigning the nation’s currency, the Naira, in 2022, without approval.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had on May 15, 2024, arraigned Emefiele on a four-count charge before Justice Maryanne Anenih of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting in Maitama, Abuja.
Emefiele, however, denied the charge and was admitted to bail in the sum of N300 million naira.
At the commencement of trial on Tuesday, counsel to the Commission, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, called Umar, the First Prosecution Witness (PW1), who narrated how the management of the apex bank directed his department (Currency Operations) to “come up with a memo on the redesign of the naira notes sometimes on August 22, 2022.”
Umar stated that upon completion of the task, the memo was submitted to the CoG and subsequently listed for consideration.
The witness added that the CoG, which consists of the CBN governor as chairman and four deputy governors as members, held a meeting via Zoom on October 26, 2022, to deliberate on the memo his department submitted.
He disclosed that he had joined the meeting only “to make my presentation and exited ” afterwards.
Umar further disclosed that after the meeting, the Corporate Affairs Department conveyed anticipatory approval of the CoG pending ratification by the Board of Directors (BoD), which according to him is the highest management body.
The BoD, he said, is made up of 12 members, comprising the CBN boss as chairman, four deputy governors, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation and five external members appointed by the president.
Speaking further, the witness said: “The CoG did not approve items 1 and 3, while item 2 was modified to include the N200 denomination. But the proposal for the exercise to take place in 2023 was not accepted by CoG.”
The witness stated that a memo prepared afterwards for consideration by the BoD “was considered on December 15, 2022.”
On the procedure for the issuance of naira notes, the witness stated that BoD will have to recommend to the president the design of the forms and devices that shall be contained in the currency.
“After the approval of the president, production of the currency will commence,” he said.
The witness continues his evidence on Wednesday.
In the four-count charge, the anti-graft agency claimed that Emefiele embarked on the naira redesign without the approval of the Board of the CBN nor that of the then President, Muhammadu Buhari.
Specifically, the EFCC is accusing Emefiele of approving the printing of various quantities of the new naira notes “without the recommendation of the Board of Central Bank and the strict approval of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria,” a conduct that “caused injury to the public and you thereby committed an offence.”
While he was accused in count one of approving the printing of 375,520,000 notes at the cost of N11 billion, in count two he was accused of approving the printing of 172 million coloured swapped N500 notes at the cost of N4.4 billion.
Also in count three, the former CBN boss was alleged to have approved the printing of 137,070 pieces of coloured N200 notes at the cost of N3.4 billion.
However, in count four, he was alleged to have withdrawn the sum of N124,860,227 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation in a manner not prescribed by the National Assembly.
Emefiele: ‘I didn’t see minute of meeting on naira redesign’ – Ex-CBN director