The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says President Muhammadu
Buhari will unveil the newly redesigned naira notes on November 23, 2022.
Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, said this on Tuesday while
fielding questions from journalist at the monetary policy committee (MPC)
meeting in Abuja.
On October 26, Emefiele, announced the plan to redesign the
naira to control money supply and aid security agencies in tackling illicit
financial flows.
The governor had said the new notes (N200, N500 and N1000)
will be effective from mid-December 2022.
However, on Tuesday, Emefiele said the bank will no longer
wait till December 15 to “unveil and release” the new note.
He said the unveiling will now be done tomorrow — 23 days
earlier than the scheduled date — by the Buhari.
Emefiele’s comment follows calls for an extension of the
December 15 deadline by various stakeholders across the country.
“The question that
has been raised is that are we going to shift the deadline? The answer remains
no, capital no. We will not shift any deadline. What we have done is not
against the law. It is in tandem with the law. We announced this program on
October the 26th 2022. And we said that upon release of the new currency, the
legal tender status will run concurrently with the old currency till 31st
January 2023. That is almost 100 days. 100 days is enough for any person in any
part of Nigeria to deposit his money in the bank and get ready to withdraw cash
when the new notes are released,” he said.
“For information, indeed, we are no longer waiting till
December 15 to begin to unveil and begin to release the new notes. By the
special grace of God tomorrow, which is the 23rd of November 2022, the
President has graciously accepted to unveil the new currencies and the new
currencies will be unveiled tomorrow at the federal executive chambers by 10am.
“So, when you talk about whether we have made adequate
provisions to make sure that those who have cash are able to deposit their cash
with the bank, my answer is yes. Because, on 26th of October I made it very
clear. I said all banks will keep their currency processing centres open from
Mondays to Saturdays. We went further [to] release the press release and said
that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 36 currency processing centres all over the
country will also be left open from Mondays to Saturdays to receive cash.
Three, we have deployed our agency banking network to receive, and in fact, pay
cash when the new notes are released to those in our rural areas. When people
say there are people in rural areas who cannot pay cash, they just are begging
the question, they don’t know what they are saying. They have other motives,
[and] it is not because they are sympathetic to the cause of the ordinary weak
people in our rural area.
“In 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria or banking industries
agency license network was only at 86,000. As of October, 2022, our agency
banking network has increased to 1.4 million all over Nigeria in almost all the
local governments in Nigeria, I therefore cannot see any reason why anybody
would say that he needs an extension because he can’t deposit his money in the
bank, even if you’re in a rural area. And the agency networks is like saying
that we have 1.4 currency points all over the country, then how can anybody
come and say that he wants to shift the deadline because there are people in
the rural areas that cannot deposit cash? That is a lie. They know what they
have in mind and we will not go with them on that journey.
“Our journey is that on January 31, 2023, all the old
currencies will lose their legal tender status and we’ll begin to use the new
currencies. We’re doing our work in line with the law that establishes us and
we will continue to do so.”
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