Former Director-General of the West-African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), Prof. Akpan Ekpo, on Tuesday in Lagos said that the agreement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to mint the Gambian currency (Dalasi) was a healthy development.
This was revealed by the professor of economics, during a media chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Prof Ekpo remained upbeat that Nigeria would do a good job for the Gambia. According to him, this is because Nigeria has a good Security Printing and Minting company to deliver.
Driving home his point, the Professor said: “It is a very healthy development! You know why, instead of that country going outside the West Africa sub region to print, they will now spend the money in the sub region. That is looking inward.
“Also, Nigeria has a wonderful Security Printing and Minting Company to handle the job, at the same time, we will make money because we will not be printing for free.
“It will be income for the CBN as well as income for Nigeria,” he said.
Naijabusiness.com.ng understands that the proposal for the CBN to print the Gambian currency was made on the 15th of June 2021, when the Governor of Central Bank of the Gambia, Buah Saidy led a delegation to the CBN.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, Saidy noted that his country was running low on currency and wants to learn how to manage their currency need by leveraging Nigeria’s wealth of experience.
He said that Gambia currently had an order for two years currency minting deal abroad but is considering also minting from Nigeria.
Responding to his proposal, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, assured his Gambian counterpart that Nigeria had a lot of capacity in currency printing, having been minting since the 1960s. He affirmed that the CBN would assist in printing the dalasi for Gambia, adding that “we can be extremely competitive in terms of cost.
