ASHENEWS reports that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed why the January 31, 2023 deadline for the validity of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, cannot be changed.
This online platform further reports that the CBN also raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, to 17.5 percent.
Recall that the CBN had, on October 26, 2022, announced its plan to redesign the three banknotes.
Also on November 23, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the redesigned notes after which the apex bank fixed a January 31 deadline for the validity of the old notes.
The CBN Governor, after the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, stood his grounds that the deadline would not be extended.
Emefiele argued that while ransom-taking and kidnapping have decreased since the redesignation of the three denominations of the banknotes, the time given for the swap of the old naira notes with new ones was enough for Nigerians to go to commercial banks and get them.
Nigerians have continued to express concern that the January 31, 2023 deadline, is not feasible owing to the unavailability of the new notes at commercial banks.
It will appear that the CBN has been unable to compel the commercial banks to issue new notes instead of the old ones, both over the counter and through their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) because as of the time of filing this report, banks were still issuing old notes to customers.
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