Recall that just last week, a new economic report from a think tank called Quartus Economics made a bold suggestion: our cash system is broken, and the CBN should fix it by introducing N10,000 and N20,000 notes. The response from the people who actually run the businesses and employ the workers in Nigeria? It was fast, and it was brutal.
The Organised Private Sector (OPS) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have, in separate and very clear terms, rejected the entire proposal. They’ve called it “ill-timed,” “elitist,” and “economically risky.” This isn’t just a polite disagreement. It’s a full-blown takedown of an idea that business and labour leaders see as dangerously out of touch.
1. “It’s an Elitist, Pro-Corruption Idea”
This was the most immediate, gut-level reaction. The National Vice President of the Nigerian Association of Small-Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Segun Kuti-George, didn’t mince words. He argued the move would “only favour the rich.” Why? Because it makes it easier for them to “stockpile large sums of cash in private vaults.”
It’s a powerful visual: a policy that helps the corrupt hide their money, while doing nothing for the average person. Kuti-George made a strong point by asking why we have a N20,000 note when the minimum wage is N70,000.
“Let us assume minimum wage is N70,000,” he said, “so they will just give you three pieces of N20,000 and one piece of N10,000 note. It has no meaning.” This statement is hard to ignore. It perfectly frames the proposal as an “elitist” solution that is completely disconnected from the reality of the average worker.
2. “It’s a ‘Bogus Thought’ That Will Make Inflation Worse”
The second major attack was on the one thing everyone is terrified of: inflation. While the Quartus report argued that higher notes are a response to past inflation (not a cause of new inflation), the business community doesn’t buy it.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Eke Ubiji, called it a “very bogus thought” that would “put the economy into a deeper crisis.”
His logic is simple: “Do you know that today you can carry N200,000 to the market in a small polythene bag and come back with very little? It will not do anything to reduce inflation. Instead, it will compound the crisis.”
In their view, printing a N20,000 note doesn’t fix the problem that N200,000 buys very little. It’s a psychological surrender. It’s the government admitting that the N1,000 note is worthless, which they believe will only cause the naira’s value to fall even faster.
3. “This Is a Step Backwards from a Cashless World”
The third rejection came from a tech and policy angle. Dr. Femi Egbesola, President of the Association of Small Business Owners, pointed out the massive contradiction.
“Globally, the world is pushing for digital means of payment… By the time you begin to print higher bills, it somehow begins to drive inflation,” Egbesola said. “Our direction should be to make more people banked.”
This is a strong point. For the last 15 years, the CBN has been on a massive, expensive, and difficult crusade to build a cashless economy. Why, after all that effort, would they suddenly make it easier to carry vast amounts of cash? It would undermine their own biggest policy.
The Big Déjà Vu
What makes this whole debate so interesting is that we have been here before. The NLC’s Assistant Secretary-General, Chris Onyeka, dismissed the entire thing with a cynical, world-weary sigh.
“I’ve seen this kind of move before,” he said. “When Jonathan mooted similar ideas… these same people went wild with criticism. They said it was… destroying the economy. Yet Ghana took a cue from that very proposal and implemented it effectively.”
He’s talking, of course, about the 2012 plan by then-CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi to introduce a N5,000 note. That plan was met with the exact same public and political backlash, and President Goodluck Jonathan eventually suspended it.
This is the central irony of the entire debate:
- The Critics (NLC, OPS): They believe printing higher notes is a sign of economic failure and will cause hyperinflation.
- The Proponents (Quartus): They argue that failing to print the N5,000 note in 2012 is why we’re in this mess. They calculate that the N5,000 note Sanusi proposed would, in 2025, be equivalent to a N50,000 note in purchasing power.
Where Does This Leave Us?
We’re stuck. We are stuck between a practical problem (our cash is too bulky) and a psychological terror (fear of hyperinflation).
Dr. Muda Yusuf of the CPPE offered a moderate compromise: maybe a N5,000 note could work. It would ease the CBN’s massive printing costs without triggering the panic of a N20,000 note.
But for now, the people who represent the backbone of the economy have drawn a line in the sand. They believe this isn’t an economic solution; it’s a symptom of a deeper problem. As Dr. Egbesola put it, “What should be important is how to improve the value of the currency, not to print higher bills.”
