The Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele has said that calls to extend the 10 February deadline for the circulation of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes are “unnecessary”.
He spoke at a meeting with the Diplomatic Corps on the redesigned Naira policy held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.
Emefiele spoke on a day Governors of Kano and Ogun States, Abdullahi Ganduje, and Dapo Abiodun, respectively, threatened to shut down banks in their States, if they continued to reject the old naira notes.
While the CBN governor noted the challenges posed by the policy, he assured that it would be brief since his team was working assiduously to address the issues it had thrown up, including the scarcity of the new notes.
He blamed the scarcity of the new notes on the activities of some unscrupulous bankers and members of the society, who were trying to sabotage the policy, warning that such people would be sanctioned along with Point of Sales, POS, operators imposing heavy charges on customers.
The CBN governor said: “PoS agents who are supposed to help are getting involved in these activities.
‘’We have EFCC, ICPC working with our monitoring team to arrest any PoS agent that charges any fee because we have made it clear that whatever is their fee, which is not meant to be more than N200 for any amount you exchange that we, CBN, will pay as part of our effort to lessen the burden of this problem.”
Some POS operators charge as much as 20 to 30 per cent of the amount customers withdraw in new notes.
He noted that some powerful public figures are trying to exaggerate the inconveniences arising from the policy but said there is no justification to create undue panic in the society.
According to the CBN boss, the “tension and elevated agitation are by our leaders who should be calming frayed nerves of the citizens.
‘’We believe the large proportion of these agitations are staged, they are sponsored propaganda or an exaggeration of the reality.”
According to the CBN boss, the “tension and elevated agitation are by our leaders who should be calming frayed nerves of the citizens.
‘’We believe the large proportion of these agitations are staged, they are sponsored propaganda or an exaggeration of the reality.”
Some Nigerians have accused the Federal Government and the CBN of contempt of court and are insensitive to the hardship many Nigerians are passing through as a result of the scarcity of cash.
But the Federal Government last night said that decision will only be taken after the determination of the suit in the Supreme Court.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu said: “We wish to look state that it is not true that the Federal Government or the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN have taken a preemptive action on the legality of currency as a legal tender in view of the pendency of the case before the Supreme Court.
“The position of the government and the CBN will be made known upon the determination of the suit coming up tomorrow, Garba Shehu said.”