Naira redesign: Some politicians lost elections because they didn’t have money to share – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) led to the scarcity of currency during the 2023 elections, causing violence at some polling centres in the country.

The anti-graft agency via its Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, said the naira redesign helped in frustrating the electoral corruption during the elections, adding that some politicians lost in their strongholds because they did not have money to share.

The EFCC spokesman said this in his speech at a virtual programme tagged ‘Corruption in Nigeria’s 2023 Elections: A post-mortem’, hosted by The Conversation Africa in collaboration with Daily Trust.

“The violence during elections was caused by the unavailability of cash which was the CBN’s naira redesign policy because politicians could not buy votes,” Uwujaren said.

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He said corrupt politicians moved illicit funds through Bureau de Change agents and one of the mechanisms of tackling the corruption was that EFCC educated the agents on guarding against this.

Speaking further on the positive impact of the naira redesign policy, Uwujaren said, “Some politicians lost elections in their strongholds which could not have happened because they didn’t have the cash to share.”