Abuja, July 23, 2013 (NAN) The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday blamed commercial banks for the infiltration of fake naira notes in the Automated Teller Machine (ATM). The Governor of the bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said this while fielding questions from newsmen after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja. Sanusi, who expressed worries over the situation, said the dispense of fake naira notes by the machines was an operational issue of the commercial bank. He, however, said that the apex bank was addressing the challenge. ``Fake naira notes in ATM is an operational issue, the banks are supposed to process the currency before they put it in the machines. ``If they are processed, their machines are supposed to identify fake notes. So, if you find a fake note in an ATM, it means that somebody in the commercial bank did not do what he is supposed to do. ``There is also the possibility that the censors of the ATM that receives and pays are not working.' Sanusi said that if such machines had censors, it should be able to reject fake notes. He said that the developments ``are purely operational issue and the deputy governor, operation, is working with the banks on this issue.” The CBN also said that there was likelihood for the lending rate to go up than coming down in the election year. ``As election is coming up, the government will be having a lot of financial spending during the period. I have said it before that there is likelihood for the rate to go up than going down in the immediate future.' He said that the government deficit in the first half of the year had increased compared to that of last year. ``The fiscal spending of the government is just the problem, the deficit in the first half of this year is over 400 billion dollars compared to 200 billion dollars during same period last year. ``We have drawn over 700 billion dollars from the excess crude account at a time when the government is borrowing more and saving less. ``You don’t expect monetary authority to lower the rate of interest.” he stressed. (NAN)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 14:59:04 +0000