“I don’t have good news for those who feel we should shift the deadline; my apologies. The reason is because 100 days is more than enough for those who have the old currency to deposit it in the banks.” – Emefiele
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has foreclosed the possibility of extending or shifting the deadline on the deposit of the old naira notes.
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele apologised to Nigerians for not extending the deadline but stated that 100 days from when the announcement was made to the expiration date was enough for Nigerians to deposit their old notes.
The apex bank said it has received between N1.3 trillion to N1.5 trillion so far but expects it will recover over N2 trillion after January 31 deadline.
However, the Nigerian Senate in today’s plenary resolved that:
i. The @cenbank should immediately extend the use of the old notes by six months from January 31st to July 31st 2023 with immediate effect;
ii. The @cenbank Governor should compel banks to open an exchange window where people who don’t have bank account can exchange their old notes with the new notes.
“In most parts of Nigeria, there are no banks & our people transact in cash most often than not. There is no doubt that we must have a policy of inclusion in getting our people who have no banks available to them and the CBN can have a special programme for that.”
“We must have policies by the CBN to ensure that we have branches of banks established more in our rural areas.”
