A prosecution witness, on Tuesday, shared insights from a memo former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, sent to seek and obtain then-President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval for the unpopular redesign of the naira in 2022.
Chinedu Eneaya, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), testified at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja, as the seventh prosecution witness in Mr Emefiele’s trial on illegal naira redesign charges.
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) instituted the charges to hold him accountable for alleged illegality and widespread chaos, losses and pains caused by the currency note redesign policy in 2022.
Under the policy, CBN redesigned the N200, N500, and N1000 notes and drastically withdrew the old versions, leading to monthslong acute shortage of the currency notes due to insufficient supply of the new ones as replacements.
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Mr Emefiele faces four charges, including illegal redesign of naira notes, disobedience to the direction of law, and illegal act causing injury to the public.
According to the EFCC, Mr Emefiele violated Section 19 of the CBN Act, which states that the CBN cannot change a currency on its own except with the approval of the president on the recommendation of the Board.
The former CBN governor has denied the charges, which are just a set among a series of criminal cases the EFCC filed against him after he was removed from office in 2023.
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What memo on naira redesign shows
Further denying the allegations on Tuesday, the defence team led by Olalekan Ojo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), confronted prosecution witness Eneaya with Mr Emefiele’s memo to Mr Buhari requesting his approval for the naira redesign in 2022.
Mr Ojo asked Mr Eneaya to read a part of the memo, which pitched the currency redesign to Mr Buhari as a necessary monetary policy to address certain issues.
The issues the policy was meant to address, according to the memo as read by the witness, are “High counterfeit risks and worsening shortage of fit banknotes.”
Mr Emefiele’s lawyer also questioned Mr Eneanya on whether the policy aimed to combat the wholesome hoarding of anira notes by the public. After perusing the document, the witness answered in the affirmative.
The date of the memo was not shared during the cross-examination session.
To show that Mr Buhari, who died last year, gave presidential approval to the proposal, Mr Ojo asked the witness to find the former president’s minute of approval on the memo.
Mr Ojo asked the witness to read the minute. “Approved but to be produced locally,” the witness said, reading Mr Buhari’s minute.
The prosecution witness then told the court that a foreign company in the United Kingdom, De La Rue, redesigned naira notes while the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPM) handled the production.
Mr Eneaya admitted that the production of the notes complied with the directive of the president.
According to the witness, the Bills of Settlement indicated that both companies were fully paid for their services.
“The CBN paid both the foreign company De La Rue of the UK for redesigning the naira notes and NSPM for printing the redesigned naira notes,” the witness said.
When asked if any former CBN deputy governors during EFCC’s investigations gave names of a Nigerian company that could design currencies, Mr Eneaya said he could not remember.
Similarly, the witness said he could not recall if his team used CBN’s guidelines but insisted that their investigations were guided by the CBN Act.
He also noted that he could not recall all the documents they had come across during the investigation. Mr Ojo asked if the EFCC had come up with an investigation report. The witness replied, “Yes.”
Thereafter, Mr Ojo requested that the report be tendered in court, “We intend to use the context to challenge the veracity of this witness,” he said.
However, prosecution lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, also a SAN, objected, saying all available documents have been tendered in court and cross-examination is not a hunting expedition.
Ruling on the submissions, the judge, Maryanne Anenih, agranted Mr Ojo’s request in the “interest of justice.”
The judge then adjourned the matter until 10 February.
Other witnesses have also testified about the naira redesign, which is at the heart of the trial, shedding light on different aspects of the policy and its execution.
In November 2024, the fifth prosecution witness, Kingsley Obiorah, who is a former deputy governor of the CBN, said the bank’s board never recommended the naira redesign to former President Buhari.
Mr Obiorah, who testified virtually, said he once served as Special Adviser to Mr Emefiele on economic matters.
The prosecution witness, who later became deputy governor, said the CBN board first heard of the naira redesign policy in mid-December 2022.
Similarly, Mr Eneaya, in October 2025, said that Mr Emefiele embarked on the controversial redesign of naira notes in 2022 without obtaining the bank’s board and Committee of Governors (COG).
He said Mr Emefiele sought the approval of the board and committee of governors for the naira redesign after former President Buhari gave his assent.
According to the witness, Mr Emefiele admitted this in his extrajudicial statement he wrote during the investigation, preparatory to his trial.
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CBN relentlessly implemented the naira redesign policy, terminating the legal tender status of the old versions of the N200, N500 and N1000 notes, without supplying enough of the new ones into circulation. The policy sparked chaos across the country, prompting some state governors to approach the Supreme Court for an intervention.
Mr Buhari staunchly defended the policy to the extent of ignoring an interim order of the Supreme Court suspending its implementation in 2023.
The case was finally laid to rest when the Supreme Court gave its final judgment on 3 March 2023.
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