Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says President Muhammadu Buhari will unveil the redesigned 200, 500, and, 1000 naira notes on Wednesday.
Emefiele stated this on Tuesday during the CBN’s monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
He noted that the decision to unveil the new notes earlier than stipulated was to enable the apex bank phase out of the old naira notes.
Speaking at the meeting he said, “Hundred days is enough for any person from any part of Nigeria to deposit his money in the bank and get his money when the new notes are released,” Emefiele said speaking to citizens trading their old notes.
“For information, indeed, we are no longer waiting till December 15th to unveil and begin to release the new notes.
“By the special grace of God, tomorrow, which is the 23rd of November 2022, the President has graciously accepted to unveil the new currencies and the new currencies will be unveiled tomorrow at the Federal Executive Chamber by 10am.”
He explained that the CBN will not extend the deadline for all old notes to be submitted to commercial banks in exchange for new notes.
The CBN MPC also hiked monetary policy to 16.5% from 15.5% while all other parameters remained unchanged.
CBN in late October announced that it was redesigning 200, 500, 1,000 naira notes.
Emefiele said that existing notes would seize to be regarded as legal tender by January 31, 2023.
The Senate last week promised to provide legislative support for the policy of the CBN to redesign the naira.
The resolution of the Red Chamber followed a motion on the policy by the Chairman of Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Sani Uba.
While the lawmakers supported the move to redesign the naira, they however said the deadline of Tuesday, January 31 2023 to pay all cash in circulation into banks was too short.
The Senate called for aggressive enlightenment on the part of the CBN, especially in the rural areas to ensure that all Nigerians are made aware of the new policy.
