No need to consider any shift from February 10th deadline- CBN Governor
No need to consider any shift from February 10th deadline- CBN Governor
Temitope Adebayo
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has said that there is no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10th, as the situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents.
Emefiele said this while briefing the diplomatic community at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The CBN governor explained to the members of the corps how the nation’s economy is faring but shared concerns about increasing inflation which he attributed to insecurity, elections spending, and the effect of the global market on the economy.
According to him, the nation’s growth rate is at 3.6 percent for 2023, noting that the economy will experience what he called subdued growth owing to the scarcity of petroleum products, increased spending which is being curtailed, and increasing debt levels.
He said, “Some of our leaders are buying the new notes and storing them for whatever purpose and I will not expand further on that.”
Emefiele said the apex bank acknowledges the suffering of Nigerians, noting that effective implementation of the policy could scrap 4% of the inflation numbers.
He further explained that the optimal volume of cash in circulation should be around N700 billion.
“Even if we say N1trillion should be in circulation, we cannot refloat N3.7trillion into circulation.”
The clarification is coming on the heels of confusion over the supreme court order which extended the deadline to February 15, pending the hearing by the court.
As reported earlier by LBN, when Emefiele visited the house of representatives members, he assured them that the old notes would be redeemed even after the February 10 deadline
This doused the earlier heightened tension among the lawmakers as they were seen beaming with smiles and calling for an adjournment.
Nigerians were thrown into confusion as commercial banks refused to take the old notes at their branches.
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