CBN Says Era of Naira Hoarding Ending as Residents Rush to Beat Deadline

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, has vowed to ensure that the country does not return to the era of hoarding naira notes.

Emefiele said the trend was wrecking the nation’s economy, stressing that by the time the old notes of N1000, N500 and N200 had been returned to various banks, the situation whereby some citizens store up cash in their personal custody would have been made difficult.

While updating journalists in Abuja, the nation’s capital on the ongoing cash return exercise across the country, Emefiele urged Nigerians who have hoarded money in their homes to return it to the banks.

While lamenting that Nigeria’s cash in circulation has more than doubled since 2015 to N3.23 trillion, Emefiele said the development attested to his disclosure that people are hoarding cash.

He added that people are keeping vaults in their homes and that the redesigned currency notes are parts of the means of disallowing them to continue owning banks in their homes.

The CBN Governor added that those who keep cash in their private residences don’t have the license to build bank vaults in their homes and urged them to take the money to banks.

Emefiele said their act was against the nation’s monetary policy, saying that they are keeping those monies to speculate against a currency, thus making the apex bank efforts more difficult.

Investors King had reported that the CBN had inaugurated a Cash Swap policy whereby agents are sent to rural communities for those without bank accounts to deposit the old notes with them.

The nation’s bank had added that those with limited access to formal financial services have the opportunity of exchanging a maximum N10,000 per person of the old notes through banks or agents without having to open an account.

The bank further noted that it was also working with about 1.4 million agents and lenders to reach citizens across the country to swap old notes for new ones or open bank accounts before the deadline.

For Emefiele, using representatives to penetrate the rural areas is a confirmation of its insistence that the January 31 deadline would not be shifted.

He maintained that Nigerians who couldn’t swap the old notes before next week Tuesday should consider them as “useless cash” in their hands.

Meanwhile, Nigerians have been rushing to beat the deadline.

Checks by Investors King on Wednesday revealed that the number of customers storming banks for exchange of notes has been increasing.

Emefiele said about N2 trillion ($4.3 billion) of cash is expected to be returned to banks by next week Tuesday.

Already, the governor said N1.5 trillion of the old notes had been returned as of last week, adding that the CBN hoped to get to N2 trillion by the Ned of the deadline.

A bank official who spoke with Investors King had said that banks are expected to return the old notes to CBN next week Tuesday, saying that Monday is the last day for customers to swap their old old notes.