New Naira Notes: How Emefile Bows To Pressure From House Of Reps, Announced Major Shift In Policy.

By Bello Doka. 

After several weeks of up and downs the central bank governor Mr. Godwin Emefile bows to pressure from the Nigeria's house of representatives after threats by the house to get him arrested and prosecuted for violating section 20 of the CBN act.

After running battles with the House of Representatives the threats of arrest and prosecution by the house compelled  Mr. Emefile to appear before its adhoc committee on Naira redesign policy on Tuesday 31 January, 2023 to answer question regarding the Naira redesign and swapping policy.

The speaker of the house of representatives Mr. Femi Gbajabiamela querried the Governor on his plan to shut down collections of the old notes by commercial banks after the deadline fixed by the apex bank in contravention of section 20 of the CBN act.

Faced with superior argument Mr. Emefile made a U-turn saying Nigerians with old notes can still deposit them at commercial banks even after February 10 deadline according to the CBN act and he agrees with the House in that regards.

"After the expiration date, such naira notes changed will no longer be legal tender but it is also says that even five months, three months or two months after, even in June , all the old notes presented to the bank shall be redeemed by the bank," Mr Ggajabiamela said 

Responding Mr Emefile said " Section 20 says even after the old currency has lost its legal tender status that we are mandated to collect that money. And I stand with the House of reps on this".

" If you have your money that you have not been able to send to the bank. We will certainly give you the opportunity to bring them back into the CBN to redeem it. Either you pay it to your bank account or you pay it to your account or you want to do an exchange". Mr Gbajabiamela added

This represents a major shift in the policy contrary to Mr. Emefile's earlier stand of no going back despite numerous calls from various quarters for the CBN to give Nigerians enough time for the swapping of their old notes due to numerous challenges encountered in the process which include non availability of the newly redesigned notes, limited banking facilities amongst others.