It is the season of festivities again and you’re likely to come across, or even partake in, parties or events where illegally sourced new crispy wads of naira notes are splashed. The age-long practice is commonplace and has subsisted, despite extant laws against the practice.

Curiously, the practice has blossomed for ages, transcended all social strata and even attained social-cultural realm amongst Nigerians. A party is hardly complete without the “show off” of cash during dancetime.

The practice of spraying cash at Nigerian social gatherings is fuelled by naira note sellers who source them illegally and patrol event venues from week to week, seeking potential buyers.

These ‘business people’ throng venues with bags of cash and sometimes POS machines, unconcerned with the illegality of their trade and enabled by their customers, the high and mighty and the lowly and striving alike.

A culture of flamboyance

A video of President Buhari’s daughter Hanan, being sprayed lavishly with cash went viral recently. Tongues wagged but nothing (punitive) happened thereafter.

But it doesn’t matter if the function is the president’s daughter’s wedding or an artisanal apprenticeship graduation ceremony, once Nigerians gather socially, they are wont to perfunctorily spray cash to display their flamboyance.

This is more so when praise singing and dancing are involved.

It has attained sociocultural levels. To opt out of the practice is to be considered a social misfit. 

Elected officials do it. Governors, senators, and all manners of politicians have no qualms throwing cash about at social functions. Kings, businessmen, religious and most elites see it as a means to establish their social standing and appreciation.

Almost all members of the social order are guilty of the trip. Even people lounged at the southern end of the economic ladder are enmeshed in the habit.

A 2020 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics estimated that 40 per cent or 83 million Nigerians live in poverty; yet, these subsets are not dissuaded from spraying naira notes at social functions.

It is a social responsibility they must fulfil at their own level, even if it means them breaking the law.

How do new naira note hawkers get their supply?

The naira notes are issued by the CBN after they have been printed by the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) Plc or other overseas companies. In the Lagos and Abuja premises of the NSPM, the apex bank maintains an office for quality control purposes.

After printing, the currencies are issued to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) through the branches of the CBN where unfit notes are also retrieved.

But that is just the official order for releasing new notes into the market. In practice, more often than not, mint notes are scarce in the banking halls but readily available with hawkers who sell them at social functions for profit.

How is this so?

A bank’s senior official told The Gazette that “Some of those hawkers even get the notes directly from CBN. Some have connections with CBN staff who collude with them in the business.

“Some get them from the bank but it’s oftentimes not known to the management. Although it’s top officials that handle it on a side note. Some of those who do the business are even bank Managing Directors. So, they just get it out, give it to the hawkers who then give them the return.”

Ayo, a new naira note hawker in the Ikorodu area of Lagos wouldn’t disclose his source on enquiry by The Gazette, but he corroborated that it was not a DMB. “It’s not from the bank, we have the person that helps us get it,” he said.

The business sense

As this piece has demonstrated so far, the business of new naira note sales answers to the forces of demand and supply. There is a ready and profitable market, notwithstanding its illegal nature.

Groom’s friend Samuel Akinleye had thought that changing his money into the N100 denomination would come at a cheaper rate when he approached hawkers at the wedding ceremony held in Ikorodu, Lagos months back.

Decked in flowing Agbada, Mr Akinleye told The Gazette that he wanted to change N10, 000 (N1,000 notes) into N100 crispy notes as N200 notes were unavailable and to his surprise, he was told he would get N5,000 in return. That is 50 per cent of his money value will be charged as sales fee!

“I approached three different hawkers who were two men and a lady, I told them I needed N100 denominations and I was informed that with N10,000, I will get N5,000. For changing the same amount into N500 denomination, I will get N8,000.)

He added that “I had to come for N500 denominations and thereafter changed it again from the alaga (personalities who coordinate the proceedings of Yoruba engagement ceremonies) who didn’t collect a dime.” 

A regular partygoer and customer of the hawkers, Samuel Olumide, explained to The Gazette that even though buying the notes comes at higher rates, changing into smaller denominations gives more ‘spraying vibes’ at events.

“When I have N10,000 (in N1,000) denominations, I usually don’t spray all at once because I have to keep spraying, so, I rather go to the bank or vendors to change. Changing to the N200 denomination means that if I spray like N3,000, I still have much more to spray, unlike spraying higher denominations.

Also, a Twitter user identified as @Ndxmzi who had graced an event, noted that he opted for N500 denominations because changing lower ones like N200 was more expensive.

“N200 naira notes are actually more expensive than the N500 denominations at ceremonies. Last party I went to they told me N200 denominations for N10,000, I’d pay N15, 000. But N500 for N10,000 is N12, 000. I just changed N30,000 in N500 denominations and sprayed it because it’s kinda cheaper,” he wrote on the microblogging platform.

Mr Ayo explained why rates on his cash are so high. He disclosed to The Gazette that mint notes were currently scarce and only N500 notes were available in the “market”, which according to him, comes at the rate of N570 and sold to sprayers at the rate of N600.

This means that a buyer would exchange their N10,000 old notes for N8,000 new N500 note denomination.

“N200 and N100 are very scarce for now. N100 comes at the rate of 145 and we sell it out at the rate of N150 while N200 comes for N280 or N290 and sells it out for N300. if not for the scarcity, it’s usually less expensive,” he explained further.

This means that the seller gets a 50 per cent profit for selling new notes of  N100 and N200 denominations.

Another seller at the Iyana Ipaja motor park in Lagos, who simply identified himself as Olayinka told The Gazette that “you’ll get N5, 000 for changing N10,000 (one thousand naira) notes into N100 denomination, same with N200 denomination and N6,000 for N50 denomination.”

Dressed in casual attire with a mono strap bag containing bundles of crispy notes, the business-minded hawker was in no mood to lower his rates.

“No, it cannot,” he rebuffed, as The Gazette tried to haggle.

Clearly, the illegal business has become lucrative not only for the sellers who hang around at parties, market places, or even motor parks, but bankers and top officials of DMBs who earn a certain percentage on each sale.

But the CBN maintains that “the new notes you see are in replacement of unfit ones returned to us by banks, and they are the channels we use in replacing them too. It is believed that those mint notes get through to the sellers either through the DMBs or staff members of the CBN.”

A broken law and a hapless regulator

The CBN Act 2007, Section 21, sub-section 3 and 4, states: “For the avoidance of doubt, spraying of, dancing or marching on the Naira or any note issued by the Bank (CBN) during social occasions or otherwise howsoever, shall constitute an abuse and defacing of the Naira or such note and shall be punishable under Sub-section (1) of this section.

“It shall also be an offence punishable under sub-section (1) of this section for any person to hawk, sell, or otherwise trade in the Naira notes, coins, or any other note issued by the Bank.”

It also stipulates that whoever flouts the provisions of the section “shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not less than six months or to a fine not less than N50,000 or to both such fine and imprisonment.”

Although the spokesperson for the CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, refused to respond to The Gazette’s request seeking comments on what the CBN was doing as regards the illegal business, he had in August said the apex bank was working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the police and other sister agencies to curb the practice.

“The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again been drawn to the activities of persons, who flagrantly abuse the legal tender by hurling wads of Naira notes in the air and stamping on the currency at social functions,” a statement signed by Mr Nwanisobi read.

“There have also been cases where people mishandle the Naira, deface it, hawk the currency at parties and reject the currency in some instances.

“Accordingly, the Central Bank of Nigeria is collaborating with the Nigeria Police, Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to address the unpatriotic practice,” the statement added. 

The spokesperson for the police, Frank Mba, also ignored the request seeking to know the level of enforcement of the CBN’s directive on illegal sales of the Nigerian currency.