The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has said the February 10 deadline on old naira notes stands contrary to the supreme ruling.
Emefiele made the disclosure while briefing the diplomatic community at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents. There is, therefore, no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 12,” he said.
The clarification is coming following confusion over the supreme court order which extended the deadline to February 15, pending the hearing by the court.
Speaking further on the cause of the scarcity of the new Naira Notes, Emefiele said, “Some of our leaders are buying the new notes and storing them for whatever purpose and I will not expand further on that.”
The apex bank governor, however, said they acknowledged the suffering of Nigerians, noting that effective implementation of the policy could scrap 4% of the inflation numbers.
Emefiele further explained that the optimal volume of cash in circulation should be around N700billion.
He said: “Even if we say N1trillion should be in circulation, we cannot refloat N3.7trillion into circulation.”
