- Nigerians unexcited as many complained over hardships suffered so far
- Experts lament political control of apex bank’s governor
By Omotola Akin
After over five weeks of clamour by millions for extension of the January 31 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for total withdrawal of old N200, N500 and N1,000 from circulation, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, finally succumbed to people’s demand and approved the extension of the deadline to 10 February 2023.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said that the President gave his approval to the extension of the deadline when he visited him in Daura, Katsina State, for the same purpose.
The apex bank in a tweet confirming the shift in the currency swap deadline, stated: “Deadline for the return of old series of 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes remains January 31 2023.”
A video of Emefiele, while giving the position of the apex bank on the old notes at the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the bank, was attached to the tweet.
In the video, Emefiele said: ”Unfortunately, I don’t have good news for those who feel we should shift the deadline, my apologies. The reason is because, just like the president has said more than two occasions and even to some people privately, 100 days are more than enough for anybody who has the old currency to deposit it in the banks. And we took every measure to ensure that all the banks were and are still open to accept deposits.”
He disclosed that so far, the apex bank had collected N1.9 trillion of the old notes and was now left with N900 billion to achieve the objectives of the policy, advising Nigerians and others who are yet to deposit their old banknotes to take advantage of the extended deadline to do so.
CBN further clarified: “Based on the foregoing, we have sought and obtained Mr President’s approval for the following: a 10-day extension of the deadline from January 31, 2023, to February 10, 2023; to allow for collection of more old notes legitimately held by Nigerians and achieve more success in cash swap in our rural communities after which all old notes outside the CBN loses their Legal Tender Status.
“Our CBN staff currently on mass mobilization and monitoring together with officials of the EFCC and ICPC will work together to achieve these objectives.
“A 7-day grace period, beginning on February 10 to February 17, 2023, in compliance with Sections 20(3) and 22 of the CBN Act, allowing Nigerians to deposit their old notes at the CBN after the February deadline when the old currency would have lost its Legal Tender status”, the apex bank added.
However, many Nigerians interviewed by our correspondent were not excited about the latest gesture of the apex bank due to what they termed sufferings, emotional and psychological trauma they have experienced over the past weeks without much result for their efforts to get the new banknotes.
Commenting on the latest extension of the deadline by the apex bank, the Founder/CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, said that the 10 days extension would not still address the negative impact of the rushed withdrawal of the old notes on the economy.
Yusuf, the former Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), had in a note on Sunday expressed concern that the failure by the CBN to extend the deadline for the ongoing currency swap could put N100 trillion component of the national GDP at risk.
Reacting to the announced shift of the deadline by 10 days, the CPPE chief said that the extension “is grossly inadequate to make up for the glaring shortcomings of the apex bank in this process.”
In his comments, another economist, Oluwasola Ayo, described the CBN latest stance on the currency swap as “applying the medication when the patient has lost all the energy he needed to survive because when you consider the time and other resources have wasted these past four or five weeks to get the new notes in exchange for the old ones they are trying to deposit, the damage of the CBN’s policy to the economy cannot be quantified at all.
“So, I don’t think persons like me will even thank them for anything at all. The damage has been done. In the past four days, I have tried to withdraw the new notes from three different ATM locations but I couldn’t because of the long queues all over the place. In fact, I have a friend who stayed on a queue for over three hours and at the end of the day, he couldn’t withdraw money because the ATM stopped dispensing cash”, he added.
Also speaking on the extended deadline, a Senior Pastor of one of the Pentecostal churches in Abuja, who simply identified himself as Emeka, told our correspondent that due to the rush to get all old banknotes out of hand, the church did not accept offerings in the old notes yesterday and that this adversely affected the Sunday service offerings by over 60% when compared to past offerings in his church.
He said: “After we knew the CBN was not ready to shift on the old notes issue, since the beginning of the week we have been sending messages to our members to deposit their old Naira notes in their banks and that only new notes will be accepted as offerings on Sunday.
“So, when the call for offerings was made and we told them that only new banknotes will be accepted, more than 60% of the people couldn’t offer anything. Most of them complained about their inability to get the new notes from ATMs even until late yesterday.
“This type of thing is not good for the people. The CBN should have listened to the people, especially the National Assembly and business groups, that have over the last four weeks or thereabout been asking the CBN Governor to extend the deadline. I am not sure any Nigeria will commend the CBN on this matter at all”, the Pastor added.
Also, speaking on the extended cash swap deadline, a construction and real estate expert, Engr. Dominic Franklin, said that “there is nothing to celebrate in what CBN has just done because over the past weeks our projects have suffered so much due to its policy of don’t withdraw this don’t withdraw that from the counter.
“As a sector that deals with manual labour with many of them having no bank accounts, we are expected to be paying our workers on site on daily basis. The old notes’ withdrawal limits have badly affected us. To me, the extension of the deadline without making the new notes available in large quantity will hurt the economy.
“Yes, e-transactions policy is good but is should be applied based on the peculiarities of the economy. So, any attempt to rush it and force people to go digital at all cost will be counterproductive for Nigeria. Even in the United States people still do cash transactions for basic needs. So, why the rush? I don’t think it is the best of option in an economy where over 60% of the population is not financially literate.
“To me, the CBN should be allowed as an autonomous government without undue political pressure from the top. If you study other economies, you will see that the governors are not always given political instructions on how to operate the central banks”, Franklin added.
It would be recalled that the apex bank had, in what appears to be its efforts to bridge the gaps in the Nigeria’s Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020), announced on November 8, 2022 that it had finalized arrangements for the circulation of the newly redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes effective from December 15, 2022, after the launch by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, explained that the new and old banknotes shall both remain legal tender until January 31, 2023, after which the old currencies shall cease to be legal tender.
The implementation of the currency swap and the newly redesigned banknotes have since then elicited reactions across a broad spectrum of the society with all stakeholders calling for the modification of the policy implementation, especially as it related to the January 31 deadline.
Curiously, the monetary authorities insisted that there would be no extension of the deadline thereby compelling millions of bank customers to deposit their old notes without getting the new notes from their banks.
Analysts believe that though the CBN Governor remains a political appointee but that subjecting the operations of the apex bank to the whims and caprices of the President or any political leader, as the current situation of the apex bank clearly shows, will not be in the interest of the country and its sustainable development in view of the criticality of monetary policies to the nation’s political economy.