…There’s urgent need to extend deadline till July 31, lawmakers insist
…Emefiele: No, there’s no going back on Jan 31 deadline
The National Assembly and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have expressed divergent views over the propriety of the CBN’s January 31 deadline for the exchange of old naira notes for the redesigned new naira notes.
Rising from their sittings on Tuesday, the Senate and the House of Representatives, in their separate resolutions urged the CBN to extend the January 31 deadline to July 31.
But the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has disclosed that the March 31 deadline is sacrosanct, saying that the apex bank will not extend the deadline
The apex bank had in October last year, said the old naira notes would seize to be legal tender as from January 31.
It is instructive to note that the Senate had in December last year, passed a resolution, urging the CBN to extend the deadline to June 30.
But the insistence of the CBN on no reversal on the March 31 deadline prompted Senator Sadiq Umar, (APC, Kwara North) to move a motion on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday where he demanded an extension to July 31.
Most senators who contributed to the debate overwhelmingly embraced the extension, citing scarcity of new notes both in the banks and at the various Automated Teller Machine points nationwide.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, put the prayers in the motion to vote and the lawmakers voted in support of the extension of the deadline from January 31 to July 31.
The decision of the House to ask for the extension was sequel to a motion of urgent public importance moved by Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) during plenary on Tuesday.
Moving the motion, Hon Soli said banking and other financial institutions are struggling to cope with the rush by citizens to change their old currencies to new notes. He said the shortage of new notes is creating panic.
He said, “Banks and POS outlets are struggling with the shortage of the redesigned new Naira notes ahead of the CBN deadline of January 31, 2023, consequently making it difficult for them to comply with the CBN directives as regards availability of the new notes for customers.
“Despite several concerns and appeals by the National Assembly, the Governors Forum, the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria, and a host of other stakeholders in the country for the CBN to extend the period for the currency swap of the new Naira notes as well as review of the cashless policy, the CBN has remained adamant on the given deadline.”
He added that the CBN should instead phase out the old currency within a longer period, like a year adding that the policy must get the buy-in of the people for it to work.
He informed his colleagues that traders in Katsina State have started rejecting the old notes.
Speaking in support of the motion, Ahmed Jaha (APC, Borno), said the CBN has been making efforts in Borno State to swap the old notes for new ones, saying that the efforts are not enough to meet the deadline.
He stated that the activities of Boko Haram insurgents have shut down banking operations in most parts of Borno State.
Jaha said, “I just came back from my constituency yesterday, I want to use this opportunity to commend the CBN for taking certain steps to address this issue in my constituency.
As I am talking to you, CBN staff have been in my constituency since yesterday. They went there with some amount to swap the little currency with people.
It is a very good move but I also realised that the amount taken there is not enough to swap the available old currency.
“For the past 10 years, my constituency is (has been) operating without a single bank branch. People transact in cash.”
But the CBN has insisted that the deadline for the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes remains January 31.
Speaking at the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, Emefiele said the 90-day window given by the CBN for Nigerians to deposit their old currencies was enough.
He said, “We don’t see any reason to talk about a shift because people could not deposit their old monies to their banks.
“The new currencies will be made available. We hold about three meetings every week with the banks”.
“We called on the deposit money banks (DMBs) to extend their working hours, and to work on weekends. There is no reason to talk about a shift. The new currencies are available.”
“The banks were doing more of the new currency over the counter to their priority customers rather than giving to the weak and small customers. We mandated them and said no more payment of new note over the counter.”
Emefiele also said the CBN had mandated commercial banks to feed the new notes into their automated teller machines (ATMs) for Nigerians to have equal access.
He said, “We have increased disbursement of the new notes to them. There is adequate quantity of new notes available. Our mint is producing and we are supplying the banks
“We have super agents in underserved areas like riverine communities, and CBN staff members have been out on mobilisation. We believe that by January 31, the new naira notes would have permeated the nooks and crannies of the country.”
According to Emefiele, the CBN had so far received about N1.5 trillion of the old naira notes.
He urged Nigerians to accelerate the process of taking their old notes to the banks before the deadline, adding that they should not fear harassment from security agents.
Emefiele also said that disbursing new notes over the counter gave rise for it to be given to friends, saying that the CBN ordered the banks to load “all new notes through the ATM which is a robot and everybody has to queue to get it and that has worked”.
Emefiele admitted that the Nigeria Security, Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) was still “producing new notes and we are supplying to the banks and so it will continue to circulate into the system”.
He added that the State Governors have been notified that there won’t be extension.
Emefiele said: “We told them we have 1.4 million touch point of our super agents, those agents are going to be available to conduct cash exchanges or swap.
‘’Let’s not forget that the super agents are like kiosk, shops, stores in your community going about their petty businesses so whether in riverine areas or upland areas, they are there and will exchange or swap old notes these we have put in place”.
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