By Banji Ayoola
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has extended the deadline for the use of old naira notes by 10 days.
This was announced on Sunday morning by the apex bank’s governor, Mr Godwin Emefele, who spoke with reporters in Daura, Katsina State after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, the president, who is in his home state for an official engagement, has approved the extension.
With this development, the new deadline has now shifted to February 10 from the original January 31, while Nigerians, who are yet to change their old notes for the new ones, now have an opportunity to do so. Besides, this has nullified the general fears of losing their money to the inability to change the notes before the deadline.
Already, before the extension, amid scarcity of the new notes in circulation, there had been tales of general rejection of old notes for transactions across markets, villages, towns and cities.
Emefiele advised people to exploit the opportunity because the deadline will not be extended again.
He declared that that the currency redesignation has yielded significant results saying: “Available data at the bank showed that in 2015, currency-in-circulation was only N1.4 trillion.
“As of October 2022, currency in circulation had risen to N3.23 trillion; out of which only N500 billion was within the banking Industry and N2.7 trillion held permanently in people’s homes.”
He said since the commencement of the programme, the CBN has collected about N1.9 trillion, “leaving us with about N900 billion (N500b + N1.9trillion).
His words: “We are happy that so far, the exercise has achieved a success rate of over 75 per cent of the N2.7 trillion held outside the banking system.”
According to him, Nigerians in the rural areas, villages, the aged and the vulnerable have had the opportunity to swap their old notes, leveraging the Agent Naira Swap initiative as well as the CBN senior staff nationwide sensitisation team exercise.
He added: “Aside from those holding illicit, stolen Naira in their homes for speculative purposes, we do aim to give all Nigerians that have Naira legitimately earned and trapped the opportunity to deposit their legitimately trapped monies at the CBN for exchange.”
However, Emefiele did not elaborate on what the central bank was doing to resolve the scarcity of the new notes.
Buhari had on Saturday backed the CBN’s plan to phase out the current 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes by Tuesday, January 31.
The Presidency in a statement said the president insisted that the policy is “aimed at people hoarding illicit funds and not the common man, and that it had become necessary to prevent counterfeits, corruption, and terrorist funding.
“This, he assured, will stabilize and strengthen the economy.”
However, Buhari’s stance contradicts that of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, and many Nigerians who complained that the new notes are not in circulation.
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for the same reason told Buhari to postpone his visit to the state as he is “deeply concerned” about the hardship it is causing locals.
The Presidency, however, said Buhari notes the public complaints but assured that there will be no disruption in business and other supply chains of the economy as the deadline would remain.
“While taking note that the poorest section of society is facing hardship as they often keep hard cash at home for various expenses, President Buhari gave strong assurances that the government will not leave them to their own fate.”
Also, the Senate during the plenary on Thursday urged the CBN to extend the deadline to July 31, citing fears that millions of Nigeria’s unbanked and rural dwellers may be hard done by if the initial date remains.
The apex bank had in October last year announced its decision to redesign the notes, alleging that members of the public were hoarding banknotes, with statistics showing that over 85 per cent of the currency in circulation was outside the vaults of commercial banks.
Subsequently, it introduced redesigned 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes and gave a deadline of 31st January for the use of the old notes.
However, the new notes have been scarce, thus leading to calls for an extension.
