Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given Nigerians January 31, 2023 deadline to return old Naira notes to its vault.
The CBN gave the deadline on Wednesday as it announced its preparations to launch new 200, 500 and 1000 Naira notes.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele made this disclosure at a special press briefing in Abuja.
Emefiele disclosed that “Timeline for mopping up, I will say, today is 26th. So, we have about 6 or 7 days to the end of October till January 31, 2023. That is almost about 100 days.
“I think that is adequate to mop up the currency out of circulation back to the vault of the CBN,” Emefiele said.
For those who do not have an account, the CBN Governor advised that they should go to the nearest bank branch and that an account would be opened for them for the purpose of returning the old Naira notes.
“If you are carrying cash, you can go to the nearest bank branch near you, they will take your cash and open an account for you for the purpose of returning the old Naira into the bank’s vault and then collecting the new Naira [notes] when we begin to release them,” Emefiele said.
He clarified thatbthe new notes would be introduced in circulation with effect from December 2022, in an effort to shore up the depreciating value of the naira.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari had already approved the redesigning of the Naira
He recalled that currency in circulation had more than doubled since 2015, rising from N1.46 trillion in December, 2015 to N3.23 trillion as at end of September, 2022.
Emefiele who noted that there was significant hoarding of Naira by the public, said 85 percent of currency in circulation are outside the vaults of the commercial banks.
The Governor said CBN statistics showed that as of end of September, 2022, N12.73 trillion out of N3.4 trillion currency in circulation was outside the vaults of the commercial banks, probably held by the members of the public.
He said that the standard practice was to redesign currency every 5-8 years but the nation’s existing currencies had not been redesigned in the last 20 years.
Emefiele said that the redesigning of the Naira would curb incidences of kidnapping and Ransome payments, deepen cashless economy and boast the integration of the eNaira into the banking systems.
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