Fakoyejo Olalekan
President Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled the redesigned naira notes on Wednesday, a day after Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, cancelled the initial launch date.
The new move comes clear three weeks earlier than the December 15 date announced by the apex bank as the official take-off day for the new naira notes.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe unveiling of the new naira notes was done in Abuja, with Emefiele present at the occasion which was supposed to hold on December 15, 2022.
In a statement on Tuesday, Emefiele had revealed that the date has changed, “For information, indeed, we are no longer waiting till December 15 to begin 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 chambers by 10am.”
The CBN governor said preparation for the redesigned naira notes has been made to ensure persons with old naira notes don’t lose their money, “So, when you talk about whether we have made adequate provisions to make sure that those who have cash are able to deposit their cash with the bank, my answer is yes.
“Because, on 26th of October I made it very clear. I said all banks will keep their currency processing centres open from Mondays to Saturdays. We went further [to] release the press release and said that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 36 currency processing centres all over the country will also be left open from Mondays to Saturdays to receive cash.
“Three, we have deployed our agency banking network to receive, and in fact, pay cash when the new notes are released to those in our rural areas. When people say there are people in rural areas who cannot pay cash, they just are begging the question, they don’t know what they are saying.
“They have other motives, [and] it is not because they are sympathetic to the cause of the ordinary weak people in our rural area.”
