The Central Bank of Nigeria -CBN, Governor Godwin Emefiele has extended the deadline for the exchange of old Naira notes to February 10 instead of the former 31 January deadline, he said.
Mr Emefiele spoke in Daura, Katsina State, after a meeting with the president who is in his home state for official duties.
Mr Emefiele said Nigerians, who are yet to change their naira notes from the old to new ones, now have an opportunity to do so.
He said people must utilise the opportunity because the deadline will not be extended again.
However, the new notes have been scarce, thus leading to calls for an extension.
Mr Emefiele did not elaborate on what the central bank was doing to resolve the scarcity of the new notes.
Background
Last October, the apex bank announced its decision to redesign the notes, adding that members of the public were hoarding banknotes, with statistics showing that over 85 per cent of the currency in circulation is outside the vaults of commercial banks.
On Sunday, Mr Emefiele assured that the currency has yielded significant results.
“Available data at the bank showed that in 2015, currency-in-circulation was only N1.4 trillion. As of October 2022, currency in circulation had risen to N3.23 trillion; out of which only N500 billion was within the banking Industry and N2.7 trillion held permanently in people’s homes,” he said.
