President Muhammadu Buhari is considering allowing the old naira notes to still be legal tender for the next 60 days.
According to The Cable, this was disclosed by a top level official, who said the presidents wants to avoid disobeying the Supreme Court ruling for old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes to remain valid until it delivers judgment in the case filed by some states against the federal government.
The official said Buhari expressed worry about the hardship faced by Nigerians while meeting with leadership of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) on Wednesday.
The governors were subsquently asked to withdraw their case at the apex court.
“The resolution was to give room for President Buhari to make concession on the monetary policy and make the following announcements public.
“One, that the old naira notes of N1,000, N500 and N200 be allowed free movement in and out of the banks for the next 60 days.
“Two, that all three notes will be legal tender during this period, but that any old N500 or N1,000 that goes into a bank will not be sent back into circulation,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) earlier has said that despite a Supreme Court order, the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes are no longer legal tender.
The Supreme Court had issued an order barring the CBN from implementing the February 10 expiration date for the old notes.
CBN’s branch controller in Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza, speaking to journalists on Monday, said the deadline was not extended.
He, however, said customers are allowed to still deposit the old notes in its branches nationwide but they can no longer be used for transactions.
Andaza said; “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is open to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria. Customers are free to come to the bank and deposit which they cannot do at the commercial banks anymore because the currency has ceased to be a legal tender since the 10th of this month.”
Andaza further said that anybody who still has the old naira notes and wishes to submit them will first have to visit CBN portal.
“The management of the CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the federation including FCT to deposit their money. The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange”, he said.
