The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Saturday, reiterated his earlier position that there was no going back on the naira redesign project and ruled out the extension of the January 31 deadline for the old N1,000, N500 and N200 to cease from being legal tender.
According to the governor, one cannot make withdrawals of the new notes from Point of Sales operators as many of them have closed shops due to uncertainties.
While lauding the demonetisation policy of the apex bank as one with the potential to stem corruption, vote-buying and other criminal activities, the NBA President noted that “the necessary logistical, infrastructural and manpower support required for the successful implementation of the policy are in short supply and should be greatly improved upon if they are to be leveraged for full implementation of the policy with minimal loss or economic hardship.
In view of the dearth of information in that regard, the NBA President added, “Our recommendation on this issue is that in addition to educating Nigerians on demonetisation itself, a campaign on what happens to old bank notes after January 31 should be launched so as to adequately inform the public on what to do and prevent or reverse the rising panic or agitation caused by concerns about the inability of Nigerians to swap their old notes for the new notes by January 31.
The statement added that people’s refusal to accept the old naira notes for commercial transactions out of fear of possible inability to deposit the notes in commercial banks was causing untold hardship to the masses. “I think the only thing that can ameliorate the present situation is to extend the deadline. If the CBN insists on the January 31 date, a lot of people will have to be left with no option but to lose a lot of money.”
Some of them complained about spending hours to make deposits under inclement weather and asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to listen to the voice of critical stakeholders and extend the deadline for the old notes to cease being legal tender. Another depositor at a branch of Access Bank in the Ogba area of Lagos, Chuks Okafor, lamented the many hours he spent to deposit about N350,000, insisting that he left his shop in the care of an apprentice.
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