The senate has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of old naira notes from circulation from January 31, 2023 to June 30, 2023.
The appeal was sequel to the adoption of a motion raised by Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno-south, during a plenary session on Wednesday.
Ndume cited orders 41 and 51 of the senate standing rule to seek the leave of the senate to move a motion on the urgent need to extend the circulation of old naira notes.
The lawmaker said the notice given by the CBN is too short, considering the limited number of banks in Borno and Yobe, and the inability of people in these states to lodge the old notes in time to meet the deadline.
As such, he said ending circulation of the old naira notes by the end of January would impose serious hardship on Nigerians.
“This senate notes that many Nigerian banks on Thursday, December 15, opened their vaults to customers and depositors to exchange their old currency for the newly redesigned currency which has a stipulated deadline of January 31,” Ndume said.
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“Some Nigerians are already envisaging long queues in the banking halls across the country as a result of people trying to get access to the new naira note. The old notes are expected to be in circulation along with the new ones until January 31 when the old ones are expected to be phased out.
“It is expected that many Nigerian businesses will start rejecting the old notes as soon as banks start paying redesigned notes to customers.”
The motion was, therefore, seconded by Adamu Aliero, senator representing Kebbi central, who said, “the timing needs to be extended to allow every Nigerian to play his/her role. I support the motion that this withdrawal date is extended to June 30, 2023.”
Last week, the World Bank warned that the timing and short transition period of the naira redesign policy may have negative impacts on economic activity.
“At present, households and firms already face elevated financial pressures from prolonged, high inflation, recently compounded by external food and fuel price shocks, and the severe floods, and phasing out existing naira notes over a short time period may add to their challenges,” the bank said.