Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele has announced that the Old N200, N500 and N1000 naira bills have ceased to be legal tender in the country.
This was as he clarified that the initial February 10, 2023 deadline for the expiration of the old notes was not changed.
The CBN governor made the assertion on Tuesday while briefing the diplomatic community at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.
Emefiele’s insistence came four days after the said deadline and against the order obtained by the Supreme Court for the extension of the order to February 15, 2023, following an exparte motion sought by three state governments.
Although, the apex bank was not joined in the suit.
Speaking on Tuesday on the deadline for the old naira notes, Emefiele said:
“The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents. There is, therefore, no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10,” he said.
Emefiele’s assertion confirmed lends credence to the decision of commercial banks which have stopped taking the old naira series even though the new series has barely been in circulation.
Speaking further, Emefiele said, “Some of our leaders are buying the new notes and storing them for whatever purpose and I will not expand further on that.”
Emefiele said the apex bank acknowledges the suffering of Nigerians, noting that effective implementation of the policy could scrap 4% of the inflation numbers.
He further explained that the optimal volume of cash in circulation should be around N700 billion.
He said: “Even if we say N1trillion should be in circulation, we cannot refloat N3.7trillion into circulation.”
