Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has assured that the value of old Naira notes of 200, 500, and 1,000 will still be redeemed even after they have ceased to be legal tender by February 10 deadline.
He said the redemption was in tandem with the law, precisely Section 20 (3) of the CBN act, noting the essence was to mop up the old notes in circulation.
The governor spoke when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the cashless policy of the apex bank on Tuesday.
Section 20 (3) of the Act says: “Notwithstanding Sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section, the Bank shall have power, if directed to do so by the President and after giving reasonable notice on that behalf, to call in any of its notes or coins on payment of the face value thereof and any note or coin with respect to which a notice has been given under this Sub-section, shall, on the expiration of the notice, cease to be legal tender, but, subject to section 22 of this Act, shall be redeemed by the Bank upon demand.”
Mr. Emefiele said commercial banks must accept the money even after the 10 February deadline.
Although Mr. Emefiele had on Sunday announced 17 February as the “grace period” for the Nigerians to deposit the money, the lawmakers are insisting that it must be months, not days.
In his speech, Mr. Emefiele said “the law says even after the old currency has lost its legal tender status that we are mandated to collect this money. And I stand with the House of Reps on this. What does that mean? It could have lost its legal tender status which means we have moved on.
“But if you have your money that you have not been able to send to the bank we will certainly allow you to bring them back into the CBN to redeem it. Either you pay it to your bank account or you want to do an exchange – we will give you. You will not lose your money. This is the assurance I give to Nigerians,” he said.
