The Central Bank Governor (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has honoured the invitation of the ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives which is investigating the scarcity of the new naira notes.

He told the committee that he did no wrong but acted in public interest with the redesign of naira notes.

Mr. Emefiele while addressing the committee explained that he had been out of the country hence his failure to honour previous invitations.

Speaking about the redesign of the naira, he said the CBN’s actions were in line with international best practices and the apex bank has to be in control of the currency in circulation.

Mr. Emefiele said in 2015 N1.4 trillion was in circulation, and by last year it had risen to N3.33 trillion.

He explained that the reason for directing banks to ensure only ATM withdrawals was to limit the daily withdrawal of individuals.

The CBN boss decried the trend of the new notes being sighted at parties and stated he was in meetings with commercial banks to mitigate these. He admitted that the policies would hurt some persons but added that it was in the interest of the country to check insecurity.

By his appearance , Emefiele had evaded being arrested on the orders of the House of Representatives which insisted on issuing a warrant of arrest through the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali.