The old naira notes’ validity has been indefinitely extended by the Central Bank of Nigeria, or CBN.
It should be recalled that the CBN redesigned the N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations in October 2022 and set deadlines for the old notes to stop being accepted as legal tender.
On Tuesday, however, CBN made the public aware of its intention to extend the old design’s “ad infinitum” deadline for legal tender status for the N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations.
The bank’s Director, Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, In a statement noted that the CBN branches in Nigeria will continue to issue and accept all denominations of the bank notes, old and redesigned, to and from deposit money banks.
“All banknotes issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, in accordance with Section 20(5) of the CBN Act 2007, will continue to remain legal tender, ad infinitum, even beyond the initial December 31, 2023, deadline.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria is working with the relevant authorities to vacate the subsisting court ruling on the same subject.
The general public is enjoined to continue to accept all Naira banknotes, old or redesigned, for day-to-day transactions and handle these banknotes with utmost care, to safeguard and protect the lifecycle of the banknotes.
“Also, the general public is encouraged to embrace alternative modes of payment, e-channels, for day-to-day transactions”, the statement read.
Reports had been circulating on how naira scarcity is biting harder across the country as banks have limited cash withdrawals.
Residents of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Adamawa and in other parts of the country had expressed concerns over their inability to withdraw huge cash in their banks, raising fears of scarcity as experienced during the naira swap.
This has also affected business transactions in local markets, especially in the northern part of Nigeria where buyers and sellers prefer to deal in cash instead of bank transfers.
The report had forced CBN to explain that the seeming cash scarcity in some locations is due to high volume withdrawals from the CBN branches by Deposit Money Banks and panic withdrawals by customers from the Automated Teller Machines”.
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