Updated: No need to shift February 10 cash swap deadline

A few hours before the Supreme Court decision on the cash swap policy, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele said there is no need to shift the February 10 deadline.

The CBN announced the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes will cease to be legal tenders from February 10.

Emefiele said in Abuja on Tuesday that there was no need to shift the deadline despite a Supreme Court last week ordering the Federal Government and CBN not to enforce the deadline.

He spoke when he met members of the diplomatic community in Nigeria at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Speaking outside his prepared text, he told the diplomats: “The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of Over-The-Counter (OTC) payment to compliment ATM disbursement and the use of super agents there is therefore no there is need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10.’’

He said: “There are pockets of pressure in some areas but the CBN is working hard to shift pressure and resources to those areas in order to ease the tension”.

With regards to the queues, the CBN Governor said it “has also noticed long queues at some bank ATMs and banking halls. While some of these withdrawal requests are genuine, some are simply reprehensible activities of miscreants who do not have intentions of making a withdrawal but seek quick earnings just to queue up and sell their space for the money.

“Panic mop up of notes, the CBN has also noticed that some of our leaders are buying the notes and storing them for whatever purposes. We have also noticed that some Nigerians are catalyzing the time transition to charge exorbitant fees, these selfish actions for personal monetary gains are causes of hardship for Nigerians and come at the expense of lives and livelihood” he said.

Going forward, Emefiele said: “The CBN will create the availability of an appropriate optimal amount of currency of N500, N200 N1000 denomination and even the existing N100 notes, N50 and N20 to support economic activities.’’

According to him: “We will continue to issue and circulate new notes but once we get to our optimal level, or slightly above, we will seek to put in place the policy that people must not keep money in their homes, they must return it back”.

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