President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) request for the extension of the deadline for swapping of old Naira notes to the redesigned ones.
The new deadline is now February 10th 2023, for commercial Banks
Another seven-day grace period, beginning on February 10 to February 17, 2023, has also been approved to enable Nigerians to deposit their old notes at the CBN after the February deadline when the old currency would have lost its Legal Tender status.
This followed the President’s meeting with the apex bank’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, in his country home in Daura, Katsina State on Sunday.
Emefiele briefed correspondents after the meeting, revealing that 75 percent of the N2.7 trillion held outside the banking system has been recovered.
He said they are happy that so far, the exercise had achieved a success rate of over 75 percent of the N2.7 trillion held outside the banking system.
According to him Nigerians in the rural areas, villages, the aged and vulnerable have had the opportunity to swap their old notes; leveraging the Agent Naira Swap initiative as well as the CBN Senior staff nationwide sensitization team exercise.
Bello Wakili
