The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday, January 26, dismissed reports on scarcity of the redesigned naira notes.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, made this known during the ‘monitoring and sensitisation’ exercise that took place in Jos, Plateau state, on Wednesday.
Emefiele said that the apex bank has “massively” supplied commercial banks with the new currency and directed them to disburse it to their customers.
Amid poor circulation of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, there have been calls from different quarters for the extension of the January 31 deadline for the validity of old naira notes.
However, the apex bank, on Tuesday, January 24, insisted that there was no going back on the stipulated deadline.
Emefiele, who was represented at the event by Musa Jimoh, director, payment system management department of CBN, said that, “The CBN has massively supplied the new notes to commercial banks to dispense both at counters and ATMs.
“This is to enable quick circulation and we want to advise commercial banks to desist from keeping the cash away from the public or face the stiffer sanction.”
Emefiele also advised Nigerians to deposit their old notes at any commercial bank and acquire new ones with immediate effect, adding that the January 31 deadline remained sacrosanct.
He explained that the decision to redesign the currency showed that the apex bank is in tandem with global standards.
The CBN governor said that the decision to redesign the country’s higher denominations of currency was a national project aimed at addressing problems related to cash circulation, The Vanguard reports.
He added that it would also solve the challenge of prolonged savings in piggy banks, cash hoarding and incidences of fake currencies.
“The monitoring and sensitisation project was activated by the apex bank for investigation of the attitude of banks toward the spread of the new currencies,” Emefiele said.
“We are equally using it to create awareness on the use of agents to circulate the cash in communities with few or no bank branches available.”
He further advised Nigerians to return faulty currencies to banks for replacements, and cautioned people entertaining the thought that the apex bank might extend the deadline to desist from it.
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