The Nigerian Senate has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the withdrawal of old currency notes from circulation to June 30, 2023.
Recall that the CBN announced the redesign of the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes in October. The apex bank also fixed January 31, 2023, as the deadline for the withdrawal of the old notes.
Moving the motion for extension in plenary on Wednesday, Senator Ali Ndume noted that the extension should be considered a matter of urgent national importance, stating that anything otherwise will compound imminent hardship on Nigerians.
“Some Nigerians are already envisaging long queues in the banking hall across the country as a result of people trying to get access to the new naira note.
“It is expected that many Nigerian businesses will start to rig the old notes as soon as banks start paying redesigned notes to customers”.
Taking the senate back to 1984 when naira notes were redesigned, the senator said “the withdrawal of old notes from circulation if not extended beyond January 31, 2023, many Nigerians will be thrown into hardship and to avoid the repeat of 1984 experience withdrawal of old notes.”
Investors King learnt that the naira redesign policy of 1984 threw many businesses off as business owners could not sell for fear of receiving old bills which would be almost impossible to change to the new ones.
Some business owners also closed their shops to join long queues at the bank while the short supply of new notes led to traumatic experiences for many.
Contributing to the motion, Sen. Adamu Aliero stated that it was true rural dwellers were not aware of the currency redesign.
