By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been urged to consider extending the deadline for rejecting old Naira notes as legal tender in Nigeria from January 31, 2023, to June 30, 2023.
This followed the point of order cited by one of the Senators, Mr Ali Ndume, during a special plenary at the upper chamber of the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 28, 2022.
Coming under orders 41 and 51 seeking the leave of the Senate to move a motion on the urgent need to extend the withdrawal of old currency from circulation, the lawmaker argued that the time for the mopping up of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes was too short.
In the motion seconded by Mr Adamu Aliero, another Senator, Mr Aliyu Wammako, noted that, “The timing needs to be extended to allow every Nigerian to play his/her role. I support the motion that this withdrawal date is extended to June 30, 2023.”
Recall that on October 26, 2022, the CBN announced that it was redesigning the higher denominations of the local currency to fight counterfeiting and hoarding of the notes.
On November 23, it unveiled the new banknotes. This was performed by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
On December 15, the new Naira notes hit circulation, but the banks are still giving out the old notes because of the scarcity of the redesigned banknotes.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka