The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the Jan. 31 deadline for exchanging old naira notes by extra ten days.
This CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said a new deadline of February 10, 2023, was approved on Sunday by President Muhammadu Buhari, who was in Daura, Katsina State.
Mr. Buhari made the decision shortly after a closed doors meeting with the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, who visited him in Daura on Saturday.
Mr Tinubu had on Wednesday during a campaign rally in Southwest Nigeria that the issues of naira change and fuel scarcity in the country could be a policy targeted against his chances of winning the February 25 Presidential election. A statement his media team said was mistaken as an affront on the administration of Buhari.
Emefiele was summoned to Daura on Sunday morning to a closed-door meeting with the Buhari from where he received the approval to extend by ten days.
The CBN Governor said the ten days window provides opportunity for Nigerians who are yet to change their old Naira notes to new ones to “now do so”.
“This in an opportunity that people must utilise, because the deadline will not be extended again,” he said.
Nigeria government had I’m November 2022 unveiled the redesigned notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations and said the existing ones cease to be legal tender by January, 31,2023.
Weeks to the end of the deadline, tension mounted across the country as citizens panicked while traders began to reject the old notes in fear of rumours that banks have no adequate new notes for everyone.
The National Assembly had to sit in a joint session to call for many months’ extension, especially as Nigerians lament that most Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across the country were still handing out the old Naira notes. Many fuel stations had to stop operation to avert the situation of collecting old naira notes, thereby causing artificial petrol scarcity.
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Bay States News 