The claim was made by a former Deputy Director of the CBN, OBADIAH MAILAFIYA, in a presentation during the public hearing on the 2017 Budget at the National Assembly in Abuja.
While acknowledging that no currency in the world is immune from counterfeiting, the CBN declared that the rate of counterfeiting in Nigeria has been very minimal due to appropriate policies to check such practice.
In a statement signed by the Acting Director of Corporate Communications, ISAAC OKORAFOR, the CBN maintained that its records clearly indicate that the prevalence of counterfeit notes in Nigeria from January to December 2016 was less than one per cent.
OKORAFOR noted that the record translates to fourteen counterfeit pieces out of one million bank notes.
He said the unfortunate implication of the fabricated claim of the former CBN official is that it gives the false impression that two bills out of every ten Naira pieces held by an individual is fake.
The CBN Management therefore challenged the former official to make public the empirical evidence suggesting that twenty percent of the Naira currency in circulation is fake.
