By Adedapo Adesanya
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said President Muhammadu Buhari will unveil the newly designed N1,000, N500, and N200 notes on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.
Mr Emefiele made this known during the apex bank’s last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for the year in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, the CBN won’t shift its deadline for all old notes to be returned to commercial banks in exchange for the redesigned banknotes.
Mr Emefiele had on October 26, 2022, said the apex bank would issue redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, effective December 15, 2022, while the existing Naira notes will remain legal tender until January 31, 2023.
With this, the central bank will no longer wait till December 15 to introduce the new notes into the financial system after the unveiling tomorrow by President Buhari.
This was confirmed by Mr Emefiele when he told reporters in Abuja today that, “For information, indeed, we are no longer waiting till December 15 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 10 am,” he revealed.
Speaking on the calls for an extension for the deadline for returning the old notes, the CBN chief said, “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.
Business Post had also reported that the CBN MPC also hiked monetary policy by 100 basis points to 16.5 per cent from 15.5 per cent while all other parameters remained unchanged.
Modupe Gbadeyanka