According to Godwin Emefiele, governor of the central bank, Nigerians with old notes can still deposit them at commercial banks after the February 10 deadline.
In his testimony before the House of Representatives’ ad hoc committee on Tuesday, Emefiele made this claim.
You may recall that the legislators had charged Emefiele with violating CBN Act Section 20.
Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House, claims that the CBN Act requires commercial banks to accept obsolete currency.
“After the expiration date, such naira notes changed will no longer be legal tender but it also says that even five months, three months, or two months after, even in June, all the old notes presented to the bank shall be redeemed by the bank,” Mr Gbajabiamila had said in a speech on Thursday.
Speaking at the hearing, Emefiele declared that he concurred with the parliament’s position on Section 20.
“Section 20 says that even after the old currency has lost its legal tender status, we are mandated to collect that money.” “And I stand with the House of Representatives on this,” he said.
He explained further that “if you have your money that you have not been able to send to the bank, We will certainly give you the opportunity to bring them back into the CBN to redeem it. Either you pay it to your bank account or you want to do an exchange—wwe give it to you. You will not lose your money. “This is the assurance I give to Nigerians,” he stated.
