By Grace Kehinde
The newly redesigned naira notes yesterday (Thursday) went into circulation This is according to the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who had in October stated that by December 15, 2022 the new currency would be in circulation.
In some banks visited by our Correspondents, the cashiers were seen releasing the bills to their customers via over-the-counter payments.
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the new bills at a weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Aso Rock Villa few weeks back.
The redesigned notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations were unveiled for public consumption in the country.
Recall that the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, noted few weeks back that the new notes will be in circulation as from December 15th with gradual effort to ease out the old notes, saying it will cease to become legal tender as from January 31st 2023.
According to Emefiele, redesigning of the naira notes would help to curb counterfeit notes, and reduce ransom payments to terrorists and kidnappers.
He added that, 85 per cent of the total currency in circulation was being hoarded by Some sections of persons in the country.
As such, he said the redesigning of the local currency would help to mop up the currency outside the banking sector, adding that out of about N3.3tn in circulation, close to N2.75tn were outside the banking sector.
Meanwhile, top officials of commercial banks confirmed to newsmen on Wednesday they had received the new notes from the CBN a couple of days ago, adding that the redesigned currency would be released to their customers effective Thursday.
“We got the funds (new notes) about two days ago. Our head office has dispatched the funds to various area offices across the country. My branch will pick up our allocation at a nearby area office. We will start releasing the new notes to our customers by Thursday,” according to a top official of a commercial bank who spoke to one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity on Wednesday because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.
Multiple banking sources also said the new notes had arrived and were being kept in their vaults.
They assured that the new currency will get into circulation, saying customers will be given the notes and will accept new notes for exchange too starting from Thursday.
The newly redesigned naira notes yesterday (Thursday) wentinto circulation This is according to the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who had in October stated that by December 15, 2022 the new currency would be in circulation.
