By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News December 21, 2009

Nigeria has been a nightmare in recent years regarding its currency system. Ruinous inflation caused all coinage to vanish from circulation, while bank notes were being printed in ever-increasing denominations that had little if any purchasing power.

Embattled Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Dr. Charles Soludo has been recently replaced by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, but not before Soludo was able to introduce a currency reform that includes polymer composition bank notes that are replacing paper notes in circulation. It was hoped coins might return to circulation as well, but at the time this article is being written this has yet to happen.

Five-, 10-, and 50-naira notes were introduced Sept. 30 through a contract awarded in April 2009, but according to the publication The Nation, was initiated in 2006 under the supervision of Soludo.

Despite all the financial mess, Nigeria has continued to maintain the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company. The Mint, as it is often called locally, was managed by the British security printing company De La Rue until the 1990s. It isn’t clear if the NSPMC has the equipment to mint coins or not. In 2005 the NSPMC was sold, with the Central Bank of Nigeria remaining as the majority shareholder. The organization, according to central bank sources, has failed to meet currency requirements for Nigeria for more than 15 years. De La Rue, Giesecke und Devrient (Germany), the Spanish Royal Mint, and Securrency International Pty. Ltd. (Australia) have since 2005 continued to show an interest in purchasing NSPMC.

NSPMC Managing Director Ehidiamhen Okoyomon testified before the Nigeria Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Financial Institutions in Abuja on Oct. 13: “‘Til date, they do not want the NSPM Plc. to succeed so that they can come back and buy the company,” adding, “It [NSPMC] was run like a ministry and seen as a drain of government funds invested. (NSPM Plc.) was virtually crippled as of 2005.”

An article titled “Australian Company Sabotaging Nigerian Mint” by Elor Nkereuwem appearing Oct. 17 on the Twitter site 234Next.com it reads: “Okoyomon disclosed that between 2005 and 2009 the under performance of the Mint, which led to its sale, had been fully addressed, adding that for the first time the Mint printed at least 2.6 billion bank notes for the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2008. He also said that from 2005 ‘til date [the] Mint had printed about 5.6 billion bank notes for the central bank and 460 million voters’ cards on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission, making the Mint one of the world’s leading printers in the security market.”

The article adds, “Some actions taken by the establishment have consequently led to a returned profit of over 2.5 billion naira.” The article, however, never addresses its own headline regarding sabotage. This has drawn the ire of a number of individuals reading the article.

A blogger calling himself Deola wrote, “How are the foreign companies jeopardizing the running of the Nigeria Minting Company? The director is just talking without giving evidence.”

Blogger Philip Ikita ominously added, “I wonder how these companies would ‘sabotage’ our Mint without connivance of Nigerians.”

The Nigerian government has been heavily criticized for corruption many times. It apears this time Sanusi and Okoyomon may have uncovered a scandal that involves at least one of the four firms working with the NSPMC.

According to the Oct. 14 issue of the Australian newspaper Daily Trust, “Top Nigerian government officials are alleged to have been bribed by Securency to produce the recently introduced polymer currency notes. Sanusi has promised to investigate the bribery saga.”

According to the Oct. 18 issue of Nigerian Bulletin, “Fresh facts have emerged how the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN under its former governor, Professor Charles Soludo in 2006 received 750 million naira as graft in the polymer note contract which runs into several billions of naira.”

Perhaps the so-called Nigerian Mint isn’t being sabotaged by outsiders looking to purchase it, but apparently there may be other ways to get into the Nigerian Mint’s pockets.



More Resources:

• 2010 U.S. Coin Digest, The Complete Guide to Current Market Values, 8th ed.

• State Quarters Deluxe Folder By Warmans

• Standard Guide to Small-Size U.S. Paper Money, 1928 to Date

• Strike It Rich with Pocket Change, 2nd Edition