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Tag: Naira Redesign

  • Naira Redesign: Usman Dan Gwari Urge CBN To Extends Deadline

    Naira Redesign: Usman Dan Gwari Urge CBN To Extends Deadline

    By Jabiru Hassan, Kano.

    The chairman, caretaker committee of the fruits and vegetables dealers association in Kano and Jigawa states Alhaji Usman Dan gwari have called on the central bank of Nigeria to review the deadline earlier given about the old naira notes.

    He made the appeal during his interview with newsmen in his residence, where he lamented that the time given is very short, while there is huge amount of old bank notes in the society, especially in rural areas where there is no adequate public enlightenment.

    Furthermore, Usman Dan gwari advised the Apex bank to bring out more redesigned money into the banks for the speedy implementation of the redesignation programme due to meet the public demand in all the existing Nigerian banks and other financial institutions.

    In conclusion, Dan gwari advised the bussiness owners to receives the old notes that might be given to them by their customers in order to ensure better process towards the the national economic development.

  • Naira Redesign: Senate Seeks Deadline Extension for Withdrawal of Old Notes

    Naira Redesign: Senate Seeks Deadline Extension for Withdrawal of Old Notes

    The Senate committee has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to extend the withdrawal date of old currency notes to June 30, 2023.

    The CBN had on October 26, announced plans to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes and withdraw old notes from circulation by January 2023.

    The senate’s resolution was sequel to a point of order raised by Sen. Mohammed Ndume (APC-Borno) during the plenary on Wednesday.

    Raising Orders 41 and 51 of Senate Standing Rule, Ndume said that the call for extension of the date should be considered as a matter of urgent national importance in order to forestall imminent hardship for Nigerians.

    Ndume said, “This senate notes that many Nigerian banks on Thursday, December 15, opened their vaults to customers and depositors to exchange their old currency for the newly redesigned currency which has a stipulated deadline of Jan. 31.

    “Some Nigerians are already envisaging long queues in the banking hall across the country as a result of people trying to get access to the new naira note.

    “The old notes are expected to be in circulation along the new ones until Jan. 31 when the old ones are expected to be phased out.

    “It is expected that many Nigerian businesses will start to rejecting the old notes as soon as banks start paying redesigned notes to customers.”

    The lawmaker also said that access to the new notes would be compounded by recent circular by the CBN which limited the amount of cash withdrawal by corporate entities.

    He started, “The withdrawal of old notes from circulation, if not extended beyond January 31, will make many Nigerians to be thrown into hardship. We need to avoid the repeat of 1984 experience in terms of the withdrawal of old notes.”

    Contributing, Sen. Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi) said it was true rural dwellers were not aware of the currency redesign.

    Aliero said, “So this motion is very apt and timely. If we insist on the date given by CBN, it will cause a lot of hardship for our rural dwellers. Majority of our people live in rural areas where there are no banks and PoS. It is appropriate we extend the time as suggested in the motion”.

  • Naira Redesign: Dollar Will Fall to N200 – EFCC Boss

    Naira Redesign: Dollar Will Fall to N200 – EFCC Boss

    The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has anticipated a drop in the value of United States dollars.

    Bawa expressed hope that the US dollar might drop to N200 following the naira’s redesign.

    The EFCC boss disclosed this in an interview with Deutsche Welle, Hausa service on Wednesday.

    He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the redesigning of the naira.

    Bawa said the naira should be redesigned every eight years.

    He said, “The law says the redesigning of Naira notes should be done every eight years, but we spent 20 years without any changes on them.

    “And that resulted in 85 per cent of money are in circulation not in banks; when CBN came up with this redesigning, dollar moved to N880 and later dropped to N680 or thereabouts.

    “So you see with this redesigning, dollar may massively fall, who knows probably to N200.”

    In the last few weeks, the naira has been falling against the world’s major currencies.

    The naira staged a comeback, recording gains on the parallel market as it exchanged for about N730 to a dollar last week.

  • Naira Redesign: Sowore Mocks Dino Melaye Over Cash Donation

    Naira Redesign: Sowore Mocks Dino Melaye Over Cash Donation

    The presidential candidate for the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, at a recent event, mocked the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dino Melaye, after the former senator made a cash donation at an event.

    The event, which was in honour of a late human rights activist, Ariyo Raphael Dare-Atoye, fondly referred to as Aristotle, witnessed Sowore throw a jab at Melaye after he pledged a sum of N500,000 annually for a foundation established for the children of the deceased.

    In his speech, Melaye noted that he had the N500,000 cash which he hoped to present to the foundation. Melaye said, “I was told that there is a plan for a foundation; an education foundation for the children and I am so impressed about that. I am making a pledge that I would give an annual donation of N500,000 to that foundation. I brought the first part of it, N500,000.”

    While taking the stage, Sowore simply stated that with the intent of the CBN to redesign the naira notes, politicians are now moving around with cash.

    He said, “You can already see the effect of the Central Bank’s decision to redesign the naira. Now politicians are carrying cash around.”

  • Naira Redesign Policy Has No Basis In Economics, Purely Political – Obaseki

    Naira Redesign Policy Has No Basis In Economics, Purely Political – Obaseki

    Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has faulted the move to redesign the naira, claiming it has no economic basis and purely political plan.

    He said this while inaugurating the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Women Campaign Council at the Presidential Campaign Secretariat in Benin City, the Edo State capital, on Wednesday.

    “They say we should all bring our naira and give it to them because they want to change it for us. Is that our priority now? How does changing of currency reduce the price of food in the market? They say they want to change our currency and dollars are going higher every day. We can’t even see dollars again,” the governor added.

    “I am an economist and I can tell you categorically that this policy by the CBN and Federal Government has no basis in economics. There is no reason to do this; this is purely political.”

    Obaseki reiterated that there is no urgency to redesign the currency, claiming the country has other important things to pay attention to.

    “The urgency for us is how to get food for our citizens to remove starvation and hunger from the land. The urgency is on how to maintain discipline in our monetary policy so that we can manage our foreign exchange rate because we are import-dependent,” the governor noted.

    He claimed that the country will continue to fail if the All Progressives Congress (APC) wins next year’s election.

    “We can’t allow those managing our country (APC) to continue because if we allow the APC government to continue, the country will fail as the country is already failing,” Obaseki maintained.

    “God sees how people are suffering in this country and will not allow them to manage Nigeria again.”

    “This 2023 election is about the continuous existence of Nigeria. If we don’t change the current leadership, I don’t know what will happen to this country. For us the PDP, we are the real only organic party. We are the only ones prepared for a free and fair election and our candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is the most experienced,” he stated.

  • Buhari Approved Naira Redesign – CBN Replies Finance Minster

    Buhari Approved Naira Redesign – CBN Replies Finance Minster

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has insisted that it followed the law and due process in the ongoing Naira notes redesigning exercise, which it said was 12 years due.

    Its position was contained in a note sent to the media in the early hours of this morning in an apparent response to claims by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmad, that her ministry was not carried along by the CBN in the exercise.

    The bank’s spokesman, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, expressed surprise at the minister’s claim, stressing that the CBN remains a very thorough institution that follows due process in its policy actions.

    According to him, “The Management of the CBN, in line with provisions of section 2(b), section 18(a), and section 19(a)(b) of the CBN Act 2007, had duly sought and obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari in writing to redesign, produce, release and circulate new series of N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes.”

    He urged Nigerians to support the currency redesign project, he said it was in the overall interest of Nigerians, reiterating that some persons were hoarding significant sums of banknotes outside the vaults of commercial banks. This trend, he said, should not be encouraged by anyone who means well for the country.

    Furthermore, he noted that currency management in the country had faced several escalating challenges which threatened the integrity of the currency, the CBN, and the country, adding that every top-rate Central Bank was committed to safeguarding the integrity of the local legal tender, the efficiency of its supply, as well as its efficacy in the conduct of monetary policy.

    On the timing of the redesign project, Mr. Nwanisobi explained that the CBN had even tarried for too long considering that it had to wait 20 years to carry out a redesign, whereas the standard practice globally was for central banks to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender every five to eight years.

    While assuring Nigerians that the currency redesign exercise was purely a central banking exercise and not targeted at any group, the CBN spokesman expressed optimism that the effort will, among other goals, deepen Nigeria’s push to entrench a cashless economy in the face of increased minting of the eNaira.

    This, he said, is in addition to helping to curb the incidents of terrorism and kidnapping due to access of persons to the large volume of money outside the banking system used as a source of funds for ransom payments.

    The Naira redesign project, he said “is for the greater good of the economy.”