 Nigeria Central Bank has raised its benchmark lending rate to 16.5% in a sustained push to control inflation and ease the pressure on the Naira. Now will this work? We'll find out ahead. We have an analyst joining us to discuss this on the breakfast. Nigeria's National Assembly has passed a students loan bill which aims to enable students in higher institutions of learning have access to financial assistance. But the question is, is the country ready for this? And enough of the press, we'll bring you in-depth analysis of today's major newspaper headlines. Welcome to the Breakfast on Plastic TV Africa, it's a beautiful Thursday morning, we're reaching live from our studios in Victoria Island, Lagos. First off, we start with a look at what's been trending on the social space as we usually do and indeed the big one, the big one, it was announced earlier this week that President Mohammed Puhari will be unveiling the newly designed or redesigned Naira notes. I want us to take a look at the Naira notes, I'm sure many of you are watching have already seen the pictures somewhere on your WhatsApp or on Facebook or on Twitter or on Instagram or at least on TV, plus TV Africa. But the president unveiled this Naira notes you can see there, the 200, 500 and 1000 Naira bills were unveiled, it was a much touted redesign, redesigned of the Naira. The president unveiled the notes at a small ceremony before the federal executive council meeting at the state house in Abuja, the fact chamber, he was joined by the governor of the central bank of Nigeria, Gordon Nehmefili, who was in attendance during the unveiling ceremony. Meanwhile, out of briefing after the ceremony before the federal executive council meeting, the central bank of Nigeria governor debunked in Situations, so the early unveiling of the new notes is a means to target any Nigerians. He appealed to members of the public, you know, to rest easy, saying there is no need to perpetuate any such information and of course, lots of reactions following the unveiling, you know, both for and against, both for and against. Of course, a lot of people, a lot of people were expressing the disappointment, you know, with the new Naira notes. A lot of people expected or said they expected to have really redesigned something different from what they know, but you can see the 1000 looks like the old 1000, it's just that it's blue, the 200 looks like the old 200, it's just that it's red, the 500 looks like the old 500, it's just that it's green, you know, there are some pictures that you could see side by side the comparison. Now some people call it recoloring, some people call it decoloring, some say one color was taken out of it, some say they just applied a new color, but the CBN gave reasons for it and the debate has also been about, you know, whether there's anything to complain about bearing in mind, they have a name and whether they changed the design, the right top, the font, you know, the arrangement, the positioning, you know, and all that, or they just changed the color and some people feel what matters is their new Naira notes different from the old one and the CBN has an aim to achieve and that will be achieved. But what has the CBN, the Central Bank of Governor, been saying? Of course, the redesign will take effect from 1st December 15, 2022 and the old Naira notes will finally be phased out and will cease to be legal tender in the country by January 31, 2023. Some people feel this is too quick and too hasty. But what has the Central Bank of Nigeria or had they been given as reasons for the so-called redesign, I mean, in fact some people have had to bring out the dictionary to argue on the word redesign and what this really constitutes a redesign in the real sense of the word and I've had arguments for and against that makes sense. We will stay in the middle a little bit for now. But the Naira note according to the Central Bank of Nigeria was redesigned, number one, to address the issue of individuals who've made a currency fraud, their main source of income, people have hidden money. They have stolen, for instance, for instance, would it have found a way to change it by taking the money out or would need to give it, would not need it. That's not the money given the change in the design of the Naira. So those who've kept money will be forced to bring it out or they have to take it, you know, somewhere else and spend it or just it goes to waste. So that's the first one. They want people who have kept money in their houses, excuse me, in their sucker ways, in their pits, pits at home, maybe buried in the ground, started in septic tanks somewhere, started in rooms somewhere in one government house and they want them to bring the money out and take it to the bank. Second thing, the CBN has said that this currency change aims to deal a fatal blow to the growing kidnapping and ransom industry. Well, yesterday there was some news. I consider it sensational a bit, but there was some news that bandits in Zampara had abducted certain persons and kidnapped certain persons asking for the new Naira. And I laugh because I said, well, do people have the new Naira in their hands yet? You know, those were kidnapped. I think it was a bit sensational. People were just kidnapped and probably, of course, it was made into such a story. I don't know. The third reason why the central bank said they embarked on this so-called redesign is they hoped to use it as a way to lower the rate of inflation. Like we said, this mop up of the liquidity in the system that's cash, you know, around that you can find on the streets in the houses outside of the bank. They want to take it away from the streets, from the system and put it in the banking in the bank so that if people find it harder to spend, maybe the prices will come down. It's what they're saying. That's the whole macroeconomic idea behind this. Then the fourth one is they hoped to control the amount of money circulation. Of course, it's linked to reason number three. And the central bank of Nigeria's governor has also said that with this redesign, this is what he said yesterday, you would have to go through a lot of hurdles, a lot of bureaucratic processes, fill a lot of forms, present a lot of evidence to be able to withdraw money in large amounts from the central bank. So that is another thing that they're bringing to the table. All right. So you would find it harder to withdraw money from the bank in large amounts. You have to fill so many forms. I'm sure the reasons they want is to make sure that people use the cashless model of financial transactions as much as possible. They want people to be able to make transactions without necessarily holding paper money. Number one, number two, they're aiming to use the filling of these forms to ensure that if you provide data and details that they can trace the money through the system, wherever it's going to, they can have at least know who is sending money where, be able to trace who is receiving money and just have some information. And they're hoping that this information that they will gather will help them trace the, you know, the source of funds, where funds are going to end, probably curb corruption, curb financial crimes, curb fraud, and also generally curb criminality. You know, so this is some of the reasons that the central bank has advanced for this. So just bear in mind that these new narrow notes come into existence from the 15th of December 2022. And that's why I've been asking, you know, for those who floated the story of banditism and for asking for new narrow notes, I mean, where are the notes? You know, so probably that may have been, you know, a sensational one. So the new narrow notes will come, you know, into existence on the 15th of December 2022. And the old narrow notes will cease to exist or to be used as legal tender on the 31st of January 2023. Now, some people also feel that this is too hasty. And it's too fast. Some feel that, you know, the, you know, standard practice around the world, you can look at the UK, you know, when they introduce a 50 pound note, is they really give a lot of time for people all over the country to be able to, you know, get their money's changed into the new notes. They look at those in the, in the hinterlands, those in the rural areas, those in the villages, those who have to go a long distance, probably trek to have access to financial services, to a bank. The suspicion by those who are saying the time is limited is that these people may be caught napping. And that is the challenge. Now, a question on my mind is, you see the designs are the same. All right, this was not a real design, as we know it. But if you want to look at technically, technically, maybe it might qualify to be described with defined as redesign because the colors were changed. But is it possible that people in the hinterlands who have not had the information, because people have talked about the central, central bank of Nigeria's information management, dissemination, public enlightenment as not being enough? Is it possible that we might still see some Nigerians using the old Nari notes beyond January 31, 2023? It's a question on our minds. Is it possible that people will reject these ones and may think that, oh, some persons, these Nari notes are fake because they don't know about the change? Is it possible? Because it looks so similar to the old one. And the old one, if you look at the 200 Nari notes, you might be tempted to think that the old one is the original. You look at the 500 Nari notes, you might be tempted to think if you are an uninformed person that the old one is the original one and this is fake. However, a lot of information, dissemination, public enlightenment, information management needs to go into this, and hopefully the central bank of Nigeria will do the needful. Otherwise, we will see people rejecting these new Nari notes and say, oh, it's fake money. Also, if care is not taken because of a short time frame we have to get rid of the old Nari notes, people may still use the old ones because they look similar. It will still be in the system. As long as I give it to you collect it and then you give it to me, I collect it. It may still be in the system because it looks so similar. I mean, people who are still spending, I think it was the Biafran pound at some point, so it may take some time. These are things they will have to grapple with. There's a lot to look at regarding this. We can't take it off. There are some security features. If we zoom into, someone brought this to my attention yesterday, we zoom into the notes, especially the 1,000. Someone said, hey, if you have the old 1,000 Nari notes with me, I don't know which one I have in my pocket. I have the old 1,000 Nari notes with me. I'll take out a 500 Nari notes. This is an old 500 Nari notes. I think it's about to be old. He was saying that if you look at the engravement on the 1,000 Nari notes, you have something like a seal somewhere here. You have something like a seal somewhere here on the old 1,000 Nari notes. But he pointed out to me that you don't have the coat of arms. You don't have the coat of arms. Sorry, it's not looking too new. Maybe that's what a CBI wants to take these out so they can have new ones. You don't have the coat of arms on that seal. The Nigerian coat of arms is not on that seal. But on the new one, you have the Nigerian coat of arms on the seal. That's another difference. You have the Nigerian coat of arms on the seal. The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that there are security details and security features on the new note that makes it difficult for you to counterfeit it. That makes it difficult for you to duplicate it. That makes it difficult for you to create fake ones. And this is a problem really. They may not be seeing it all the time but it's actually a problem. You know, it's actually people may have perfected over the years the counterfeiting of the Nari notes. So I mean, someone said to me yesterday, you know, they should have at least changed Namdee Haziki with his face now. They should have changed his cap now. It's the same. And I said, so these things are, they don't matter. That's not a real deal. You know, if they want to change the color of the pound, they won't change the Queen's clothes. You know, God bless her soul. Or King Charles's clothes. It's the same thing. You know, because you can't go and draw a new Namdee Haziki with it and then add, this is a picture. This is portrait. You know, so I think we need to slow down on government bashing. I know we have a compulsive attitude towards a reaction, you know, towards government things that concern government that we normally will bash the government of the day because don't trust them. And I myself, like you, most of you was disappointed to see that it wasn't anything new. But hey, the most important thing is that they are facing out the old ones and whether the designs were new or not, whether they changed the cap of Namdee Haziki way or not. They changed his smile or not. They will still take out these old ones and the resultant effect will be the same. Okay. For me, it's like having a vehicle that has a nice body, a great body in a superb design, but the engine is bad. For me, the engine in all of this is the aim, the objective. I think that is more important than the design to me. That's more important than design. So we'll leave it at that. We'll leave it at that. Okay. So you can see there are security features here. All right, there are security features here that you can't see with the bare eye. But when you look at the new narrow notes, you notice that the security features are different. All right. The security features are different. If you look at this, you see that there's a sort of a silver line down the middle. Now this silver line down the middle is a security feature. So where you take the new narrow notes, according to Central Bank of Nigeria, the details in these security features are different. The details in these security features are different. Forget about the design. All right. Okay. So the security details in this picture are totally different. Totally different. Also, what they're saying is that it will be difficult to counterfeit. You know, it's a big problem. Big problem, really big problem of counterfeiting. All right. So we'll leave it at that. Please, if you have any of these narrow notes with you, you feel you don't have the time to go to the bank to change, you can reach out to me and give it to me. Bring them to me and I'll help you dispose them of handsomely in which you use to buy some food or something. All right. So that's that. It remains to be seen if anything, I mean, possibly come out of this, the effects on the inflation, effects on the Naira. But the funny aspect of all of this, the funny aspect of all of this, some Nigerians said, I think I'll take Senator Shea Husani's comment on Twitter yesterday. This was Senator Shea Husani, former member of the Nigerian National Assembly representing Kaduna, I think Kaduna South or so. I need to be sure. But here's from Kaduna State all the same. He said something very interesting. And he said that, I mean, it was really just a, you know, a lighter play at things. He said, even scenario column, the CBN should have just engaged Snapchat, you know, should have gone to Snapchat. In fact, people now began to say that this is a not redesigning. It is a Snapchatification of Naira. Some people took pictures of it briefly and then changed it and just made it green and say, what's the difference? The same man, he just says looking green, you know, another funny comment that I saw. Someone said, Dami Elavi on Twitter said that they used remaining paint from the former 10 Naira, 20 Naira and 15 Naira. You know, the former 10 Naira was red. The former 20 Naira was green before they made it the polymer notes. And then the former 15 Naira was blue, you know. So she says they used remaining paint from the former 10, 20 and 15 Naira. Maybe the plan was to use the former colors of the smaller Naira, but it was confused, the dollar, you know, it was a funny one. But interestingly, this is the second time Muhammad Buhari's leader of Nigeria will be in power and, you know, and show that the Naira notes have changed. In 1983 or 1984 when he was military head of state, something similar happened. So that's one for the history books that we have to remind you of. We'll take a little bit of time and we'll pause at this juncture. We'll be right back with more right here on the breakfast. Please stay with us.