Why CBN will not extend deadline for the validity of the old naira notes – Emefiele
Nigeria’s apex bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has insisted that the deadline for the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 remains next Tuesday, 31 January.
But just as the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele announced this at the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Tuesday, the National Assembly asked the regulatory bank to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of old naira notes from circulation.
Emefiele told the MPC that kidnapping and ransom-taking have reduced since the three banknotes were redesigned.
He said, “I must say here that unfortunately, I don’t have good news for those who feel that we should shift the deadline. My apologies. The reason is because just like the President has said more than two occasions and even to people privately, that for us, 90 days, in fact, we feel it is 100 days, that it is enough for anyone who has money or the old currency to deposit it in the bank. And we took every measure to ensure all the banks remain open to receive all old currencies.
“100 days we believe is more than adequate. We called on the banks, not only are we requesting you to extend your banking hours so that you can receive old currencies, but we are also asking you to keep your doors open on Saturdays, ladies and gentlemen, the banks did not even have any reasons to even keep their banking halls open on Saturdays neither did they see the kind of rush that they anticipated.
“We do not see any reason to begin to talk about a shift because people could not deposit their old monies into their banks.
“There is adequate quality of new notes available but let all know that it is a process of increasing, not producing. Our Mint is producing and we are supplying to the banks and so it will continue to circulate in the system.”
Last October, Emefiele announced the Naira redesign policy which entails the issuance of new notes to replace the existing N200, N500 and N1,000 series.
The CBN said — N100, N50, N20, N10, and N5 notes — would continue to be in circulation while the current N200, N500, and N1,000 naira notes would cease to be legal tender after 31 January 2023.
