The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed that there is no scarcity of new naira notes according to some media reports. This was disclosed by Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor represented by Musa Jimoh, Director of the Payment System Management Department of the bank, in Jos. The Nigerian Senate urged the CBN to extend the deadline by 6 months but the CBN says there is no going back on its January 31st deadline.
Positive supply: The CBN said there is enough supply of the new notes to commercial bank ATMs, and urged banks to desist from keeping cash away.
- ”The CBN has massively supplied the new notes to commercial banks to dispense both at counters and ATMs.
- ”This is to enable quick circulation and we want to advise commercial banks to desist from keeping the cash away from the public or face the stiffer sanction.” The CBN Governor also advised Nigerian to deposit old notes before the deadline, insisting that there is no going back. He also added that the decision to redesign the currency is in line with global standards, adding that they are to redesigned every 5 years but Nigeria took nine years since its last currency design.
Awareness: Emefiele added the Monitoring and Sensitisation project was aimed at addressing problems related to cash circulation in order to create awareness of the use of agents to circulate cash in under-banked communities “The Monitoring and Sensitisation project was activated by the apex bank for investigation of the attitude of banks toward the spread of the new currencies. ”We are equally using it to create awareness on the use of agents to circulate the cash in communities with few or no bank branches available.”
What you should know
The Nigerian Senate this week urged the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to extend the January 31st deadline for old naira notes withdrawal to July 31st, 2023. The Senate said it was necessary to extend the deadline, urging that banks should also open an exchange window where people who don’t have a bank account can exchange their old notes with new notes. They said: “The Central bank should immediately extend the use of the old notes by six months from January 31st to July 31st, 2023 with immediate effect; “The Governor should compel banks to open an exchange window where people who don’t have a bank account can exchange their old notes with the new note.”
