Godwin Emefiele

Ahmed Umar, a former Director of Operations at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has revealed that the Naira redesign policy embarked upon by the embattled former Governor of the apex bank, Godwin Emefiele, was not approved by the Committee of Governors.

Umar made the claim at the resumed trial of Emefiele on Tuesday.

At the trial opening on Tuesday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), fielded Umar as its first witness.

Led in evidence by the EFCC prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), Umar told the court that his department in 2022 was directed to come up with the new design for the naira.

He said, “The management of CBN directed my department to come up with a memo on the design of the naira note sometime in August 2022.

“We prepared the bill with the Committee of Governors and passed it through the line Deputy Governor Operations, which he forwarded to the Governor and it was listed for consideration by the Committee of Governors.”

The ex-director, who told the court that he joined CBN 35 years ago and retired in July 2023, explained that the Committee of Governors comprised five members, including the CBN Governor as chairman.

The witness told the court that the naira redesign memo was presented to the Committee of Governors for their consideration/ review on October 26, 2022, but the committee did not approve it.

Umar said, “We humbly requested the implementation of the amendment. (But) the extract from the COG did not approve item one and item three. While item two was modified to include N200 denomination, the proposal for the exercise in 2023 wasn’t approved by the COG

“The design shall be contained in the currency after the approval of the President then the production of the currency will commence.”

Justice Maryanne Anenih admitted in evidence the Certified True Copy of the memorandum filed by the Operations Department and marked it as Exhibit A.

The EFCC, in the charges, accused Emefiele of spending N4.4bn to print “coloured swapped N500 notes.”

The ex-apex bank chief, however, denied all the allegations, pleading not guilty.