Nigeria has been in a state of chaos and quagmire, with citizens dealing with hunger, suffering and untold hardship due to the new Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
N1000, N500, and N200 denominations were proposed to be redesigned and ceased to be legal tender on Tuesday, January 31, 2023.
The plan to redesign the aforementioned notes was accomplished, but this has caused more harm than good, owing to the inability of the banks to make the notes available for their customers. Most of the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) galleries were abandoned with no cash in them.
Fraudsters embraced the opportunity to defraud unsuspecting citizens, by printing fake new Naira notes and making them available, mostly in popular markets and through some POS agents who loiter about looking for victims.
To curb this menace, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released security features to help identify fake new Naira notes.
According to CBN’s template, the Security features to look out for are the following;
Intaglio: This is when the image on the naira note is incised into a surface, and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink.
Portrait watermark: A watermark is a logo, piece of text, or signature superimposed onto a photograph. Watermarks are typically transparent, so those viewing the image can still admire it. The new naira notes’ watermark is in portrait form, as seen in the illustrations.
Optically Viable Ink (OVI): The light reflects off OVI security ink when viewed at an angle. The light makes the ink’s colour appear different compared to looking at it straight. In many use cases, OVI may be transparent when viewed directly but takes on colour when viewed at an angle. For instance, the OVI in the new naira notes changes from blue to green with a change in the view angle.
Kinegram: This is one of the easiest ways to identify counterfeit notes. It provides quality identification and security features for the new naira notes. The Kinegram is made of the You’ll see an image of the Nigerian Coat of Arms in the original new N1000 note.
Iridescent band: A symbol at the top of the new N1000 note changes when seen from different angles.
Engraved portrait: The picture of Nnamdi Azikiwe in the new N500 note is being carved into a surface. The portrait is painted or sketched on the right side to enable you to identify the original.
See pictorial representation of how to identify fake new Naira notes..
