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No Going Back On January 31 Deadline For Swapping Old Naira Notes For New Ones– Nigerian Central Bank Gov, Emefiele

Emefiele
January 24, 2023

Emefiele in a video posted by Channels TV on Tuesday said that 90 days given to Nigerians were more than enough to return all their old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes to their banks.

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has insisted that there will be no extension of the deadline for the deposit of old versions of the redesigned Naira notes after January 31, 2023.

 

Emefiele in a video posted by Channels TV on Tuesday said that 90 days given to Nigerians were more than enough to return all their old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes to their banks.

 

The CBN governor noted that the apex bank in a bid to ensure that there will be no reason to extend the deadline, directed commercial banks not only to extend their daily working hours but to also work on Saturdays. He, however, noted that Nigerians did not turn up as expected, hence, demanding a deadline extension at this point cannot be granted.

 

He said, "I must say here that unfortunately that I don't have good news for those who feel that we should shift the deadline. My apologies.

 

"The reason is because just as the President has said on more than two occasions and even to people privately, that for us, 90 days, in fact, we feel that 100 days is enough for anybody who has the money or the old currency to deposit it in the banks.

 

"And we took every measure to ensure that all the banks were open or remain still open till they receive all the old currencies. 100 days, we believe, is more than adequate.

 

"We called on the banks, we said, not only are we requesting you to extend your banking hours so that you can receive old currencies, we are also asking you to keep your doors open on Saturdays.

 

"The banks did not even have any reason to keep their banks open on Saturdays, neither did they see the kind of rush that they anticipated.

 

"There were normal people who came in to deposit money into the bank and maybe in the course of time, I will also give details about how much that had come in.

 

"So, we do not see any reason to begin to talk about a shift because people could not deposit their old monies into their banks."