The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has expressed its opposition to the proposed naira restructuring by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The association stated this in a statement signed by its president, Mr Sunday Salako and the senior assistant secretary, Mr Friday Inegbedion, in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CBN had on Aug. 23 announced plan to restructure the naira and introduce the  N5000 note from Jan. 2013.

The association, however, said that the introduction of a higher denomination would signal the devaluation of the country’s currency and attract hyper-inflation.

The union observed that such an announcement often signified a regime of increased and sustained fiscal deficit financing.

“In spite of the introduction of local and international money transfers, people still carry huge sums of cash around and this will be aided by the higher denomination currencies,” it stated.

ASSBIFI charged the CBN to initiate programmes that would tackle inflation, interest rate, improper banking habit, bank robberies, unemployment, corruption, money laundering, insecurity and poverty. It advised the government to use the proposed N40 billion for the naira restructuring to revive other sectors of the economy that were comatose.