Buhari unveils redesigned naira notes on Wednesday

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele said President Muhammadu Buhari will unveil the redesigned naira notes on Wednesday, November 23.

Emefiele made this known during the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee monthly meeting in Abuja.

The CBN governor said the bank decided not to wait till the initial Thursday, December 15 date of unveiling the redesigned naira notes.

Emefiele explained that the early unveiling will help hasten the phasing out of the existing naira notes.

READ ALSO: CBN redesigns 200, 500, 1,000 naira notes

“100 days is enough for any person from any part of Nigeria to deposit his money in the bank and get his money when the new notes are released,” Emefiele said.

“For information, indeed, we are no longer waiting till December 15th to unveil and begin to release the new notes.

“By the special grace of God, tomorrow, which is the 23rd of November 2022, the President has graciously accepted to unveil the new currencies and the new currencies will be unveiled tomorrow at the Federal Executive Chamber by 10am.”

READ ALSO: Senate backs CBN naira redesign, faults timeline for mop up of old notes

According to him, the CBN will not shift its deadline for all old notes to be returned to commercial banks in exchange for newly designed ones.

The CBN MPC also hiked monetary policy to 16.5% from 15.5% while all other parameters remained unchanged.

CBN in late October announced that it was redesigning 200, 500, 1,000 naira notes.

Emefiele said that existing notes would seize to be regarded as legal tender by January 31, 2023.

The Senate last week promised to provide legislative support for the policy of the CBN to redesign the naira.

The resolution of the Red Chamber followed a motion on the policy by the Chairman of Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Sani Uba.

While the lawmakers supported the move to redesign the naira, they however said the deadline of Tuesday, January 31 2023 to pay all cash in circulation into banks was too short.

The Senate called for aggressive enlightenment on the part of the CBN, especially in the rural areas to ensure that all Nigerians are made aware of the new policy.