- Says Apex Bank Has Massively Supplied New Notes
The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has dismissed reports claiming the apex bank has been hoarding the new naira notes days before the expiration of the January 31st deadline.
Speaking at a media briefing in Jos, Emefiele, CBN governor, said the apex bank has massively supplied banks across the country with the new currency and has directed them to disburse them to customers.
Emefiele who was represented at the event by Musa Jimoh, director, payment system management department of CBN, also advised citizens to deposit their old notes at any commercial bank and acquire new ones with immediate effect, insisting that the January 31 deadline remains sacrosanct.
In his words, “The CBN has massively supplied the new notes to commercial banks to dispense both at counters and ATMs.
“This is to enable quick circulation and we want to advise commercial banks to desist from keeping the cash away from the public or face the stiffer sanction.”
The CBN governor explained that the decision to redesign the currency showed that the apex bank is in tandem with global standards.
He added that the currency ought to have been redesigned within five years.
Emefiele, however, regretted that it took Nigeria nine years since such changes were last effected.
The CBN governor said the decision to redesign the country’s higher denominations of currency was a national project aimed at addressing problems related to cash circulation.
He added that it would also solve the challenge of prolonged savings in piggy banks, cash hoarding and incidences of fake currencies.
“The monitoring and sensitisation project was activated by the apex bank for investigation of the attitude of banks toward the spread of the new currencies,” Emefiele explained.
“We are equally using it to create awareness on the use of agents to circulate the cash in communities with few or no bank branches available.”
