By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced an extension on the date to end the use of old notes of the country’s official currency, Naira.
The deadline earlier fixed for January 31 is now to last till February 10.
The apex bank had last year redesigned the 1,000, 500 and 200 Naira notes to phase out the old ones.
The bank announced the extension in a statement on Sunday by the Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
“A 7-day grace period, beginning on February 10 to February 17,2023, in compliance with Sections 20(3) and 22 of the CBN Act allowing Nigerians to deposit their old notes at the CBN after the February deadline when the old currency would have lost its Legal Tender status.
“We therefore appeal to all Nigerians to work with the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure a hitch free process for the implementation of this very important program”, the statement read in part.
Emefiele thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for backing the currency redesign which he said has not been effected in the last 19 years, a project he said can only be approved by “an incorruptible leader of the President’s stature”.
He said the Monetary Policy Decision is efficacious and will assist in tackling inflation in the country as well as stabilizing the galloping exchange rate.
“Secondly, we aim to support the efforts of our Security agencies in combating Banditry and Ransom taking in Nigeria through this program and we can see that the Military are making good progress in this important task in Nigeria.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, available data at the Central Bank of Nigeria has shown that in 2015, Currency -in- Circulation was only N1.4 trillion. As at 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. Ordinarily, when CBN releases currency into circulation, it is meant to be used and after effluxion of time, it returns to the CBN thereby keeping the volume of currency in circulation under the firm Control of the CBN, ” the CBN chief noted.
In an effort to achieve the effective distribution of the new currency, the apex bank says it has held meetings with Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and provided them with information on the processes they must adopt in the collection of the old notes and distribution of the new ones to the Nigerian people.
Additionally, the bank said it has commenced a nationwide sensitization using the media to create awareness on the redesigned notes to the masses, a project that has seen it partner with the National Orientation Agency, NOA.
“We deployed 30,000 Super Agents nationwide to assist in our Cash Swap initiative in the hinterlands, rural areas, and regions under served by banks in the Country to ensure that the weak and vulnerable ones amongst us can swap/exchange their old notes.
“We deployed all our staf, particularly the Assistant Directors, Deputy Directors and Directors in Abuja to proceed to all CBN branches Nationwide to join the mass mobilisation campaign and monitoring programs, working with the Deposit Money Banks, agents and our Branch controllers across the 36 states of the Federation,” it stated.
The bank stressed further, “We are happy that so far, the exercise has achieved a success rate of over 75 percent of the N2.7 trillion held outside the banking system. Nigerians in the rural areas, villages, the aged and vulnerable have had the opportunity to swap their old notes; leveraging the Agent Naira Swap initiative as well as the CBN Senior staff nationwide sensitization team exercise.
“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.”
