CBN governor appears before House of Representative

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CBN says Nigerian will not lose old Naira after expiration
Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele

 

Says Nigerian will not lose old Naira after expiration

 

Admin l Tuesday, January 31, 2023

 

ABUJA, Nigeria – The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has appeared before the House of Representative Committee on currency probing the decision of the apex bank to redesign the naira with deadlines for swap of old Naira notes.

The CBN  governor apologized for his inability to appear before now, stressing that on those occasions, he was out of the country.

He told the committee that”in agreement with the House of Representatives resolution and subject to section 20, subsection 3 which says even after the old currency have lost its legal tender status that we are mandated to collect those monies. We will still continue to accept the old notes into bank accounts.”

He appealed to members of the house that it is not an easy exercise and that he is happy that in 19 years the apex bank is doing what has not been possible. He appealed for support and that there might be hitches but that it is in the interest of the Nigerian economy and that the overriding interest is that the exercise will make Nigeria better.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, warned last Thursday that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, risked being arrested for failing to honour an invitation by the House to explain the limited circulation of new Naira notes in the country, days before the January 31 deadline set by the bank to stop the use of old notes.

The affected denominations are N1000, N500 and N200, which the apex bank recently re-designed.

Gbajabiamila spoke during plenary in Abuja after the House was briefed that neither Emefiele nor any official of the bank showed up before an ad-hoc committee given the task of looking into the matter.

The committee, by a resolution on of the House, was mandated to interface with the CBN and Managing Directors (MDs) of deposit money banks. The committee has Rep. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa as Chairman.

“If by the end of today, there is further disregard, I will not hesitate to issue a warrant to the Inspector-General of Police to compel the attendance of the CBN Governor and all MDs who fail to respond to the invitation of the House”, Gbajabiamila stated.

He also reminded the CBN that under  Section 20(3) of its establishment Act, new and old notes are to coexist until the old ones are completely mopped up from the economy.

The Speaker stressed that the case of imposing a deadline that had brought serious hardship on the citizenry, while the new notes were not available, was not provided for in the law.

 

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