The Central Bank of Nigeria has extended the deadline for exchanging old naira banknotes for new ones until February 10, 2023, CBN said in a statement on Sunday.
Apex Bank is adding “a 10-day extension from Jan 31, 2023 to Feb 10, 2023 to enable more collection of older banknotes,” said CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.
He also pointed out that Nigerians can directly deposit their old banknotes into CBN until February 17, 2023, during the so-called “grace period”.
Given the shortage of new 200, 500 and 1000 naira banknotes in Nigeria, there has been pressure from many Nigerians and groups to set an initial January 31 deadline for the old banknotes to come into effect.
Emefiele extended the deadline as follows: In order to enable Nigerians to collect legally held old banknotes and to be more successful in converting to cash in rural communities, all old banknotes that are not CBN will lose their legal tender status.
At present, under conditions of mass mobilization and surveillance, our CBN staff will work with officials of the Commission on Economic and Financial Crimes and the Independent Commission against Corruption and Related Crimes to achieve this goal.
The 7-day grace period from February 10, 2023 to February 17, 2023 under sections 20(3) and 22 of the CBN Act applies to Nigerians if the previous currency loses legal tender status after the February deadline. for previous accounts. ”
. Emefiele also asked all Nigerians to cooperate in implementing this policy. Before succumbing to today’s pressure, CBN said yesterday (Saturday) that the 200, 500 and 1,000 naira bonds will not have maturities until January 31st.
Apex Bank said the January 31, 2023 deadline would remain in place via a Twitter page that was confirmed late Saturday night.
The leading bank released a video with CBN Governor Emefiele at a closed-door meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee saying that “the deadline for the return of the 200, 500 and 1000 naira banknotes remains 31 January 2023.” Bad news for those of you who think you need to delay the deadline. I’m sorry.
The reason is that, as the President has repeatedly said, and even privately to some people, it only takes 100 days for a person with an inherited currency to deposit it in a bank.
And we have done everything to ensure that all banks are registered and accept deposits.