Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, told the House of Representatives on Tuesday that commercial banks in Nigeria will continue to accept old naira notes from customers after the deadline on February 10.
While speaking before the House’s ad hoc committee on the CBN’s naira redesign policy, Emefiele stated this, but he did not specify how long banks would accept expired notes.
Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House, had said that the CBN governor had broken Section 20 of the CBN Act, which says that commercial banks must still accept old notes after the deadline.
Gbajabiamila stated in a speech on Thursday that “after the expiration date, such changed naira notes will no longer be legal tender” and that “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.”
In his address to the ad hoc committee, Emefiele stated that he concurred with lawmakers regarding Section 20 of the CBN Act.
According to Section 20, we are required to collect that money even after the old currency has lost its status as legal tender. Additionally, he stated, “If you have your money that you have not been able to send to the bank, I stand with the House of Representatives on this.” We will certainly provide you with the opportunity to redeem it by bringing them back into the CBN. We give you the option to exchange or pay it directly to your bank account. Your money will not be lost. I provide Nigerians with this assurance.
The chairman acknowledged Emefiele’s apology to the lawmakers for failing to respond to the previous summons.
He stated that the CBN had only used the opportunity to make the economy more cashless, and that the policy should have been implemented several years ago. He asserted that Nigerians would soon recognize the policy’s advantages.
After the over-an-hour-long hearing, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, chairman of the ad hoc committee, requested a closed-door executive session with committee members.
After that, the members and the Majority Leader went to the room where plenary was going on.