The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele on Tuesday clarified that while the deadline of February 10th to phase out old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes still stand, commercial banks in the country can still collect the old notes as provided in Section 20 sub section 3 of the CBN act.
Emefiele spoke when he finally appeared before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on the cashless policy.
It would be recalled that on Thursday the House threatened to issue warrant to the Inspector General of Police to compel the CBN governor to appear before its ad-hoc committee.
This is sequel to his absence in the first invitation to explain the issue surrounding the deadline to phase out the old naira notes and the insufficient circulation of the redesigned currency.
While speaking at the ad-hoc committee meeting, the CBN boss said President Muhammadu Buhari gave the approval for the redesigned of the naira notes since October 2022 having listened to the CBN that the last time the currency were redesigned was about 19 years which ought to be 5-8years according to global best practice.
He further clarified that the naira notes are now in circulation across the country through CBN staff and bank agents in local government areas.
After much clarification from the CBN Governor, the chairman of the House ad-hoc committee, Hon. Alhassan Doguwa commended the effort of the apex bank.
According to CBN, the exercise has achieved about 75% success in villages.
