Senior officials of the Federal Government have confirmed a QUEST TIMES Exclusive reporting on the destruction of old Naira denominations of N200, N500 and N1000 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
While disputing a report by TheCable, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai stated through a press statement issued by his spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye, that “senior officials of the federal government reached some governors on phone to initiate discussions on a possible out of court settlement.
“The terms they proposed were to allow only the old N200 note to remain legal tender and be circulated by the CBN till 10 April 2023. They claimed that the CBN had already destroyed the old N500 and N1000 notes that had been deposited, but that those persons who still held the old notes could redeem them up to 10 April 2023.”
On February 11, 2023, QUEST TIMES had exclusively reported that a National Council of State (NCS) advice that old Naira notes be recirculated to alleviate the suffering in the land, was always going to be a tall order because the apex bank was already destroying these old Naira notes.
We had stated in our story that; “As at last week, the CBN said it has mopped up about 1.9Trillion old Naira notes. At the Council meeting yesterday (Friday) CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele told the leaders in a PowerPoint presentation that by the time of the meeting “about N2.1 Trillion has been recalled so far.”
“A source close to the Governor added on condition of anonymity that “only about 25% of the old notes–about 2.1 Trn. are yet to be destroyed. So even if the CBN wants to start recirculating this it won’t go very far. But as at now, no one has even given an instruction to stop the destruction of the remaining 25% of the old notes recalled.”
El-Rufai also stated in the press release that “Information available to the governors also indicate that the Mint will need at least 12 months to print the minimum amount of N1 trillion needed to ensure a functioning trade and exchange environment in Nigeria,” corroborating our earlier reporting that not enough new Naira notes have been printed by the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPMC) to attain liquidity, because MINT just doesn’t have the capacity to do so.
“It has been discovered that the amount of Naira notes to be mopped up and replaced runs into trillions but the MINT can only print some hundreds of billions in a whole year,” QUEST TIMES had reported on January 25, 2023.
State governors have since filed a suit at the Supreme Court against the federal government on the legal tender status of old banknotes beyond the February 10 deadline issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
On Wednesday, February 15, the Supreme Court adjourned hearing on the case to February 22, amid a Naira scarcity crisis that has sparked violent protests and led to unprecedented suffering across Nigeria.
TheCable reports that the federal government has proposed fresh conditions on the Naira redesign policy, including a new deadline of April 10 for the old notes to stay as legal tender.
A government official had also said the resolutions presented to members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) included “that the old Naira notes of N200 be allowed free movement in and out of the banks for the next 60 days.”