CBN won’t extend Jan. 31 deadline for old Naira notes

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it will not extend the January 31 deadline for collection of old Naira notes. It, therefore, advised Nigerians not to wait till the date to turn in their old notes. The CBN has announced January 31, 2023 as the  deadline for collection old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes. Olufolake Ogundero, the Controller, Central Bank of Nigeria, Ibadan, said this in Ibadan on Saturday during an advocacy visit on the new notes to the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun. Ogunddero said that cash deposits to banks would not attract charges between now and January 31 and there was no limit to amount of old notes people could deposit.

She advised all banks to keep their currency processing centres open from Monday to Saturday to collect more cash deposits from their customers. “We have come here on the instructions of CBN Governor to sensitise the Olubadan, Olubadan-in-Council and people of the state about the 31st January deadline for the exchange of old Naira notes and also to tell them that the money is now available; they should go and deposit their old Naira notes because there will be no extension for the date,” she said. Ogundero said the new notes had the same security features as the old ones, stressing that the CBN printed the old and new notes. “In line with the global best practices, we should change our currency notes between five to eight years, we have had them for a long time, many people have been hoarding these old currency notes such that it has hampered our plan to know the amount of money in the economy, we have been recycling the old notes over and over again, so there is need to redesign it to compete globally.

“We have disbursed these money to commercial banks and they have been mandated to put it in their ATM machines, we are trying our best to make sure that the money is available in the economy.” High Chief Tajudeen Ajibola, the Otun Balogun Olubadan of Ibadanland, who spoke on behalf of Olubadan, decried the shortage of the new notes, saying CBN should make them more readily available and accessible. He implored CBN to increase the cash withdrawal limits for customers to do more transactions.