The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said that the CBN is willing to partner with its Gambian counterpart in tackling acute currency shortages among other currency management challenges in the Gambia.
Receiving the delegation from the Central Bank Gambia (CBG), led by the its governor, Mr. Buah Saidy on Tuesday in Abuja, Mr. Emefiele, said that the CBN was willing to assist the Central Bank of the Gambia to print its legal tender.
He assured his guests that the Nigerian apex bank has extremely competitive advantage to undertake the currency printing for Gambia and that the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting has a lot of idle capacity to satisfy the demand of the CBG.
“I note your point on currency management. The Nigerian mint was set up in the early 1960s and we’ve been producing our currency since the early 1960s and we have a lot of idle capacity to ensure that instead of you going to Europe or other countries, you will be able to benefit from our ideas.
“Our colleagues will take you to the security printing facility. Our colleagues that came in from Liberia two months ago were fascinated by the kind of facilities we have at our security printing and minting facility and I am sure that you will also enjoy them.
“And I am sure they will follow you back to the Gambia to see how they can help you to structure your economic order quantities so we can also be of assistance in printing your currency.
“And I can assure you that we can be extremely competitive if only from the standpoint of logistics and freight from Europe but it’s just going to be a few hours from here to the Gambia and the rest of them,” local media reports on Wednesday quoted Emefiele as saying.
Earlier, the governor of the CBG had requested for a possible partnership to tackle acute currency shortages among other currency management challenges in the Gambia.
Saidy said that the Gambian apex bank was relying on its current printer, De La Rue of London, for its currency needs and that it was expensive and unsustainable.
According to him, it costs the bank about £70,000 to lift printed currencies from Sri Lanka to the Gambia.
The CBG governor also noted that one of the purposes of the visit was to benefit from the CBN’s vast experiences on how it had successfully regulated the financial system and sought assistance in the areas of information technology, modernisation, cyber security, forex shipping and management, among others.
GIK/APA