Nigeria owns a national security printing company, yet continues to rely heavily on foreign contractors to produce its banknotes. Recent data from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2025 Annual Report show a widening gap between the country’s growing cash demands and its limited domestic manufacturing capacity.
The latest figures reveal that foreign high-security printers accounted for 65 percent of all banknotes approved for production in 2025, while the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPM), the country’s official Mint, was allocated just 35 percent. Compounding the issue, the NSPM failed to fulfil its minority quota, forcing the central bank to rely heavily on overseas printers to bridge the resulting supply gap.
This persistent dependency has reignited debates surrounding the country’s macroeconomic resilience and its capacity to manage strategic national assets. Financial analysts argue that aggressively localising currency production is a necessary step to conserve scarce foreign exchange, stimulate domestic job
This post was originally published on this site.
