CBN-Governor-Godwin-Emefiele
By TOM CHIAHEMEN, Abuja –
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has disclosed that the on-going swapping of currency to new notes in the country has so far achieved a success rate of 75% of the N2.7trillion held outside the banking system.
He said in a statement on Sunday that since the commencement of the exercise, the CBN had collected about N1.9trillion, “leaving us with about N900billion.”
The CBN governor’s statement came shortly after his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, Katsina State, where approval for 10-day extension of the deadline for for the collection of old Naira notes was given.
Emefiele said President Buhari had approved “a 10-day extension of the deadline from 31st January 2023 to 10th February 2023 to allow for collection of more old notes legitimately held by Nigerians and achieve more success in cash swap in our rural communities after which all old notes outside the CBN lose their legal Tender status.”
He noted that available data at the CBN had shown that in 2015, currency-in-circulation was N1.4rrillion but that as at October 2022, currency-in-circulation had risen to N3.23trillion out of which only N500billion was within the Banking industry and N2.7trillion held permanently in people’s homes.
Giving further justification for the decision extend the exercise, Emefiele said that aside from those holding illicit/stolen Naira in their homes for speculative purposes, “we do aim to give all Nigerians that have their Naira legitimately earned and trapped , the opportunity to deposit their legitimately trapped monies at the CBN for exchange.”
Following the redesign of the Naira, the apex bank had fixed Jan. 31 as the deadline for the legitimacy of the old Naira notes.
The redesigned Naira notes, comprising N200, N500 and N1,000, became legal tender on Dec. 15, 2022, after they were unveiled by Buhari on Nov. 23, 2022, in Abuja.
In the statement made available to NATIONAL ACCORD on Sunday, Emefiele said, “I’d like to continue to thank Mr. President for giving the CBN the approval to embark on this ambitious programme because, like I had said in the past, the CBN hasn’t had the opportunity to embark on such currency redesign programme in the last 19 years and indeed, let me emphasise that only an incorruptible leader of the President’s stature can give such approval to the CBN.”
Emphasising that the aim of the apex bank was “mainly to make our Monetary Policy Decisions more efficacious,” Emefiele said “we’ve started to see inflation trending downwards and exchange rate relatively stable.
“Secondly, we aim to support the efforts of our security agencies in combating Banditry and Ransom taking in Nigeria through this programme, and we can see that the Military are making good progress in this important task in Nigeria.”
According to a reports by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), traders and business owners were, as at Saturday, asking their customers to pay with new notes.
The report also indicated that some of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were still dispensing the old Naira notes, while there were long queues at few ATMs dispensing the redesigned Naira notes.
Some banks dispensing the new notes had configured their ATMs to dispense N5,000 or N10,000 per transaction.
Also, some Point of Sale (PoS) operators were still paying with old Naira notes, while some who had the redesigned Naira notes increased their charges by 100 to 200 per cent.
