The old naira note has so far garnered 1.9 trillion  -Emefiele

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, estimates that N1.7 trillion in notes have already been returned to banks, leaving N500 billion more to be done.

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He omitted to mention how much money the new naira will cause to remain outside of the banking system.
The deadline for exchanging old notes for new ones at commercial banks was extended by the bank on Sunday from January 31, 2023, to February 10.After February 10, those who still possess the old notes will have a seven-day “grace period” in which to deposit them with the CBN.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: CBN has extended the deadline for Naira swaps.

NewsReport gathered that after February 17, the old notes will cease to be legal tender, the governor said.In a press release on Sunday, Emefiele said: “Available data at the Central Bank of Nigeria has shown that in 2015, currency in circulation was only N1.4 trillion.” As of October 2022, the amount of currency in circulation had risen to N3.23 trillion, of which only N500 billion was within the banking industry and N2.7 trillion was held permanently in people’s homes.
“Ordinarily, when the CBN releases currency into circulation, it is meant to be used, and after the effluxion of time, it returns to the CBN, thereby keeping the volume of currency in circulation under the firm control of the CBN.”
“So far and since the commencement of this program, we have collected about N1.9 trillion, leaving us with about N900 billion.”

He said to achieve effective distribution of the new currency, the CBN has taken a number of steps.”We held several meetings with our Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and provided them with guidance notes on processes they must adopt in the collection of old notes and distribution of the new notes to all Nigerians.” “These include specific directives to DMBs to load new notes into their ATMs nationwide to ensure an equitable and transparent mechanism for the distribution of the new notes to all Nigerians,” he said.

“We commenced a nationwide sensitization through print and electronic media to create awareness about the redesigned notes among Nigerians, including collaboration with the National Orientation Agency to reach all Nigerians across multiple channels.”

READ ALSO: BREAKING: CBN has extended the deadline for Naira swaps.

“We deployed 30,000 Super Agents nationwide to assist in our Cash Swap initiative in the hinterlands, rural areas, and regions underserved by banks in the country to ensure that the weak and vulnerable ones amongst us can swap or exchange their old notes.

“We deployed all our staff, particularly the assistant directors, deputy directors, and directors, in Abuja to proceed to all CBN branches nationwide to join the mass mobilization campaign and monitoring programs, working with the deposit money banks, agents, and our branch controllers across the 36 states of the Federation.

This is meant to ensure compliance with all our guidelines already issued for smooth implementation of the program. Although we have received some reports of breaches by some bank branches, we have agreed with the Executive Chairmen of the EFCC and ICPC to assist us by sending their staff to all CBN and DMB branches nationwide to join in monitoring the implementation of these guidelines. The aim is to ensure compliance with the laid-down guidelines.

“We are happy that so far, the exercise has achieved a success rate of over 75 percent of the N2.7 trillion held outside the banking system. Nigerians in rural areas, villages, and the elderly 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.
“Aside from those holding illicit or stolen Naira in their homes for speculative purposes, we do aim to give all Nigerians that have Naira that is legitimately earned and trapped the opportunity to deposit their legitimately trapped monies at the CBN for exchange.”

READ ALSO: BREAKING: CBN has extended the deadline for Naira swaps.

Emefiele thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he described as an “incorruptible leader,” for approving the naira redesign program.
“I’ve just ended a meeting with Mr. President.” “The purpose of the meeting is to provide Mr. President with updates about the implementation status of the CBN currency redesign program currently going on across the Federation,” he said.
“First, I’d like to continue to thank Mr. President for giving the CBN the approval to embark on this ambitious program because, as I have said in the past, the Central Bank of Nigeria hasn’t had the opportunity to embark on such a currency redesign program in the last 19 years, and indeed, let me emphasize that only an incorruptible leader of the President’s stature can give such approval to the CBN.

“From the on-set (outset) of this currency redesign program, we made it clear that for 19 years, the CBN hasn’t been able to conduct this important aspect of its mandate, whereas this should normally have been done within a 5-8 year window.

“Our aim is mainly to make our monetary policy decisions more efficacious, and as you can see, we’ve started to see inflation trending downward and exchange rates relatively stable.” “Secondly, we aim to support the efforts of our security agencies in combating banditry and ransom taking in Nigeria through this program, and we can see that the military is making good progress in this important task in Nigeria.”