The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele on Tuesday said President Muhammadu Buhari will unveil newly designed N1,000, N500 and N200 notes on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.
Emefiele made this known during the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee monthly meeting in Abuja.
According to him, the CBN won’t shift its deadline for all old notes to be returned to commercial banks in exchange for newly designed ones.
The CBN MPC also hiked monetary policy to 16.5% from 15.5% while all other parameters remained unchanged.
Emefiele had on October 26, 2022 said the apex bank will issue redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, effective December 15, 2022, while the new and existing currencies will remain legal tender and circulate together until January 31, 2023.
However, he made a U-turn on Tuesday, saying the CBN won’t wait till December 15 anymore as the President will unveil the new notes on Wednesday.
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The bank chief said, “100 days is enough for any person from any part of Nigeria to deposit his money in the bank and get his money when the new notes are released.
“For information, indeed, we are no longer waiting till December 15th to unveil and begin to release the new notes.
“By the special grace of God, tomorrow, which is the 23rd of November 2022, the President has graciously accepted to unveil the new currencies and the new currencies will be unveiled tomorrow at the Federal Executive Chamber by 10am.”
President Muhammadu Buhari plans to publicly reveal the new naira notes on Wednesday unless he changes his mind in the next few hours, sources have informed Premium Times.
Hotmedia.ng had reported in October that the Central Bank of Nigeria announced its plan to redesign all major naira notes.
It gave December 15, 2022 the date to start circulating the new notes.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the unveiling of the new notes will precede the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the State House in Abuja.
The central bank announced that it would redesign the naira notes in order to control the amount of currency in circulation, manage inflation and combat counterfeiting.
“These challenges primarily include: Significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 85 percent of currency in circulation are outside the vaults of commercial banks,” CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had said.
To be more precise, as of the end of September 2022, the CBN’s data indicates that N2.73 trillion of the N3.23 trillion in currency in circulation was reportedly held by the general public outside the country’s commercial banks’ vaults.
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“Evidently, currency in circulation has more than doubled since 2015; rising from N1.46 trillion in December 2015 to N3.23 trillion in September 2022. This is a worrisome trend that cannot be allowed to continue.”
The bank stated that it had made provisions for simple exchange in response to worries about Nigerians in rural areas, particularly given the short deadline for submitting the old notes.
The bank claimed that in order to ensure that vulnerable citizens were not disadvantaged, it was collaborating with pertinent financial system agencies during implementation.
“Whilst noting the progressive increase in financial access points and alternative banking channels over the years (electronic/internet banking, mobile apps, ATM, Cards/PoS, eNaira, agent banking, etc.), the Bank acknowledges that these may not be evenly distributed across all geopolitical zones and in some rural areas.
“In operationalising this initiative, the CBN has been collaborating with relevant agencies and other stakeholders in the financial system in its execution, particularly ensuring that vulnerable citizens are not disenfranchised” a statement by the Apex Bank said on November 1.
