The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has said that banks will continue to accept old naira notes after the stipulated February 10 deadline, The Cable reported.
Emefiele stated this on Tuesday while appearing at an interactive session with the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the currency redesign and naira swap policy, according to the report.
He said the CBN will also accept the old naira from banks after the February 10 deadline.
Emefiele said he agrees with the section 20(3) of the CBN Act which mandates the apex bank to continue to accept old notes after its expiration.
Recall that while announcing the extension of the old notes deadline on Sunday, Emefiele said that CBN will continue to accept the old notes until February 17th describing it as grace period.
However, Emefiele did not mention a duration when the banks will stop collecting the old notes while speaking on Tuesday.
Section 20 (3) of the CBN act states: “Notwithstanding sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section, the bank shall have power, if directed to do so by the president and after giving reasonable notice in that behalf, to call in any of its notes or coins on payment of the face value thereof and any note or coin with respect to which a notice has been given under this sub-section, shall, on the expiration of the notice, cease to be legal tender, but, subject to section 22 of this act, shall be redeemed by the bank upon demand”.
He further explained that even after the old currency has lost its legal tender status “we (CBN) are mandated to collect these money (old notes) and I stand with the house of representatives on this”.
“What does that mean? It could (old notes) have lost its legal tender status which means we have moved on. But 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 exchange, we will give you. You will not lose your money. This is the assurance I give to Nigerians,” Emefiele said.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
