CBN alerts consumers to fake viral N5,000 note featuring President Tinubu’s image

*The Central Bank of Nigeria dismisses certain claims of its release of a N5,000 note featuring the image of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, describing the ‘content is fake. Let the public be guided’

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said the circulating image of a new N5,000 bank note is outright fake.

ConsumerConnect reports some social media users have claimed that the CBN released the first sample of a N5,000 note, featuring the image of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Consequently, the now-viral image is said to have elicited barrage of reactions from social media consumers.

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Reacting to the untrue claims of its release of a N5,000 note Thursday, April 9, 2026, the CBN dismissed the report.

The West African country’s banking sector regulator, which noted this  in a post via its official X handle said: “This content is fake. Let the public be guided.”

What the CBN Act 2007 says

It should be noted that Section 18(a) and 18(b) of CBN Act 2007 gives the Central Bank absolute power (with no legislative intervention) to perform the following statutory responsibilities:

(a) arrange for the printing of currency notes and the minting of coins;

(b) issue, re-issue and exchange currency notes and coins at the Bank’s offices and at such agencies as it may, from time to time, establish or appoint.

Viral N5,000 note image 90 percent AI-generated: Report

The N5,000 note image was subjected to an Artificial Intelligence (AI) detector tool, Hive Moderation, and it showed that it contained over 90 percent AI material, The Nation report said.

It is noted that the finding showed the currency image has been generated by an Artificial Intelligence tool that is part of the social media platform X.

Artificial Intelligence uses complex computer algorithms to perform tasks otherwise done by humans, like answering questions and writing code.

It is recalled the CBN, in 2012, had announced plans to introduce N5,000 notes.

However, the Bankers’ Bank, in 2022, dropped the plans.

Over the years, there have been calls for the introduction of N5,000 notes in the Nigerian economy.

The country currently has N5, N10, N20, N50, N100, N200, N500 and N1000 notes in circulation.

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