February 10 Deadline On Old Naira Notes Stands — Godwin Emefiele

Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has stated that the February 10 deadline for the circulation of old naira notes remains in effect.

Emefiele made the announcement on Tuesday while briefing the diplomatic community at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.

“The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents. There is, therefore, no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10,” he said.

The clarification follows misunderstanding about the supreme court order that extended the deadline to February 15, pending the court’s hearing.

Nigerians were perplexed on Monday when commercial banks refused to accept the old currencies at their branches.

Emefiele went on to say, “Some of our leaders are buying the new notes and storing them for whatever purpose and I will not expand further on that.”

Emefiele stated that the top bank recognizes Nigerians’ hardship, saying that proper policy implementation could eliminate 4% of the inflation figures.

He went on to say that the ideal amount of currency in circulation should be around N700 billion.

“Even if we say N1trillion should be in circulation, we cannot refloat N3.7trillion into circulation.” he explained.