The Central Bank of Nigeria has posted a countdown clock on its website for the January 31, 2023 deadline for the current N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.
The Naira redesign policy, which the apex bank had announced, called for the printing of new notes in the N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations for the three circulating Naira notes.
The official launch date for the circulation of the new naira notes had been set by the CBN for December 15, 2022.
It stated that from December 15, 2022, to January 31, 2023, both the old notes and the new notes would be accepted as legal tender.
The highest bank declared that as of January 31, 2023, the old notes would no longer be accepted as legal tender.
The Central Bank of Nigeria advised Nigerians to deposit the denominations that would be redesigned at their various banks, noting that the banks would be open for business every week from Monday through Saturday. Additionally, it stated that bank charges on deposits had been suspended for the time frame and that there was no cap on the amount that could be deposited at one time.
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele had claimed that people were hoarding naira notes, and statistics showed that more than 80% of the currency in circulation was not kept in commercial banks’ vaults.
He described the current situation – as of September 2022 – as unacceptable, with a total of N3.2 trillion in circulation, N2.73 trillion of which was outside the vaults of the banks.
