The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has declared that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes had ceased to be legal tender in Nigeria.
CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele who made the declaration on Tuesday during a meeting with members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja, said, there was no going back on the February 10, 2023 deadline for the swapping of the old notes.
Although, against the ruling of the Supreme Court, Emefiele said, the 10th of February, 2023 given for the swap of the old naira notes stood.
“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 apex bank governor revealed that some rich Nigerians are buying the new naira notes.
“Some of our leaders are buying the new notes and storing them for whatever purpose and I will not expand further on that,” he said.
He further disclosed that the optimal volume of cash in circulation should be around N700billion.
He said: “Even if we say N1trillion should be in circulation, we cannot refloat N3.7trillion into circulation.”
He said, the apex bank acknowledges the suffering of Nigerians, however, effective implementation of the policy could scrap 4% of the inflation numbers.
