Lagos, Feb. 11, 2023 – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has tacitly extended the Feb. 10 deadline on the circulation of the old naira notes.
Authoritative source at the apex bank told the Global Business News (GBN) on Friday night that the CBN was not thinking of other thing to do than to obey the Supreme Court’s injunction.
“For now, we don’t have any other agenda, but to comply with the Supreme Court’s injunction.
“Any other thing will have to wait until Feb. 15 when the Supreme Court will meet on the issue again,” the source said.
GBN reports that the CBN cannot also enforce the deadline going by the advice of the Council of State.
The Council, after its meeting in Abuja on Friday, directed the CBN to make more naira notes available to Nigerians to relieve them of the current hardship.
Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, was also advised to circulate more of the old naira notes.
The Senate had since the announcement of the policy, advised the CBN to extend the deadline to June 2023 to give more time for people to change the old notes.
Ahmad Lawan, the Senate President, said that while the Senate supported the policy, there was the need for more time for the old notes to co-exist with new notes.
The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Feb. 7, granted an interim injucnction restraining the Central Bank from continuing with the full implementation of the policy.
Three northern states, Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, had, in a motion ex-parte filed on February 3rd, prayed the apex court to halt the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redesign policy.
A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice John Okoro, in a unanimous ruling, granted an interim injunction restraining the CBN from its Feb. 10 deadline.
Under the CBN’s naira redesign programme, the old 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes will cease to be legal tender. (GBN)
