Senate demands extension of deadline for exchange of old Naira notes

The Senate on Tuesday January 24, 2023 appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the deadline for the exchange of old naira notes from the January 31 deadline to July 31, 2023.

The apex bank had in October last year, said the old naira notes would seized to be legal tender as from January 31, 2023 but the Senate in December passed a resolution urging the CBN to extend the deadline to June 30, 2023.

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However, worried by the insistence of the apex bank that there would be no such extension, Senator Sadiq Umar, moved a motion on the floor of the red chamber on Tuesday and demanded the extension to July 31.

Most senators who contributed to the debate overwhelmingly embraced the extension, citing scarcity of the new notes both in the banks and at the various Automated Teller Machine (ATM) points across the country.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, put the prayers in the motion to vote and the lawmakers voted in support of the extension of the deadline from January 31 to July 31, 2023.

Meanwhile, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday insisted that the January 31deadline still stands.

Speaking on Arise TV, Emefiele urged Nigerians to go all out and deposit their old Naira notes for new ones before the expiration of the deadline.

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