Economy
By Kennedy Nnamani
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, on Sunday, January 29, 2023 announced the extension of the deadline for the ongoing currency swap by 10 days.
The announcement has attracted mixed reactions from Nigerians. Reacting to the shift in the deadline from January 31 to February 10, the Chief Executive of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Muda Yusuf, said that the 10-day extension of the deadline for currency swap was not adequate.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday Yusuf said that there was a huge stock of the old banknotes in the system and the glaring shortcomings of the CBN might make the new timeline difficult to meet.
He, therefore, recommended a minimum of six months for the currency swap exercise.
Yusuf also called for urgent intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari to save millions of Nigerians from the anguish and pain of the current stampede of currency swap.
According to him, there is the need to extend the deadline further to save the situation and that the two critical sectors that were most vulnerable were the trade and commerce as well as agriculture sectors.
“The crippling of business transactions at the distributive trade end amid the currency swap crisis would not only undermine the trade and agricultural sectors, but would have a knock-on effect on manufacturing value chain and the services sectors.
“This is because whatever is produced has to be sold.
“The trading end of the chain has been greatly disrupted by this currency swap crisis,” he said
“The reality is that presently in many parts of the country, more than half of the currency in the hands of citizens are still old notes. And it is on record that the banks were still giving out old notes even few days to the CBN deadline.
“The citizens should not be made to pay for the incompetence, inefficiency and ineptitude of state institutions,” he added.
In the same vein, the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on New Naira Re-design and Naira Swap Policy rejected the extension, noting that the 10-day extension is not the solution and threatened to compel the Governor of the CBN to appear before the committee.
Some other Nigerians who reacted to the extension of the deadline told Realnews that they were disappointed by the new development. Agnes Idowu, a Kaduna based petty trader told Realnews that she was disappointed at the action of the CBN.
Idowu said that she had stopped collecting the old notes because she did want to lose her goods and not be able to spend the money.
“I have lost a lot of customers because they were having the old notes and I don’t want to collect the old notes because no one will also collect it from me,” she said. “It is better for me to have my goods and wait until January 31 than for me to sell them and the money becomes useless in my hands.
“Now they have extended the deadline, all the money I would have made are all gone. The CBN did not do well,” she said.
Joy Ajah, another business woman, said that the extension of the deadline would lead to huge losses as she had already taken all her old notes to the bank instead of using them to engage in trading.
“The extension on the deadline has personally affected me. I just deposited my old notes, which I should have used to buy more goods only to come out to hear that the date has been extended.
“And the most annoying thing is that I can’t even get the new notes now.
“The Nigerian government should stop treating us, the masses, like we are not humans,” she said.
However, James Adams, a barber, applauded the decision of the CBN, noting that it is better to extend the date so that people can get rid of the old bills and get more of the new notes.
According to him, if this is not done, a lot of people are going to lose because the old notes are still much in circulation more than the new ones.
“You can’t even get the new notes and even if you finally get the new N1000 notes and you use it to buy something, before you know it, your hand is filled with old N200 and N500 as change,” he said.
Meanwhile, some Nigerians have been reacting to the announcement of the extension of the deadline posted on the official Twitter handle of the CBN.
In its tweet, the CBN said: “Central Bank of Nigeria extends the deadline for the return of old series of 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes from January 31, 2023, to February 10, 2023, to allow for the collection of more old notes.”
Responding to this tweet, Ibrahim Musa, with the name @daddyfresh2 tweeted: “CBN is making things difficult for Nigerians with their policy of not paying customers over the counter. It’s a poor policy. They should also make the lower denomination of the Naira notes available to Nigerians.”
@exec boss reacted: “It’s quite unfortunate that CBN succumb to political pressure and unfortunately CBN acted to appease the politicians not purely for ordinary Nigerians or the economy…becuz there were high degree of public supports that would’ve helped CBN mitigate the effect of political forces.”
@ogenagwe1 said: “Me that has endured not using/accepting old notes until now with the mind that new notes will be everywhere on the 31st latest on the 1st of February 2023. Make una no go scam us ooo
. Old notes must not expire while with me oo.”
As for @IrukeJohn, he encouraged the CBN to maintain the new date.
“CBN don’t blink after this extension let your 10th February be your 10th, people don’t know why you change the naira notes. Mr. President said no going back after 31st January before, so why the sudden change? We want to believe the government by their words and actions,” @IrukeJohn tweeted.
Also, @philemon_torto applauded the CBN and the decision.
He said in his tweet: “I thank CBN for their well done, their agents are able to visit my village, but the main issue was extension of time for the local people which I am glad they have listened to the voice of reasonable counseling.
Similarly, @saintvy added in his tweet, “plz is a nice idea for the @cenbank to extend the deadline date of old naira note(s) return…on this note…I urge the governor of CBN and other cashless policy influencer and all the related stakeholders to tell all the commercial banks to stop issuing the old notes.”
Meanwhile, the new deadline of February 10 may seem a long way, but it is just about 10 days. Therefore it will be in the best interest of the public, especially those who still have the old notes to make haste and deposit them in the bank or any other official and recognised agents.
KN
Tags: Agnes Idowu Central Bank of Nigeria CPPE Godwin Emefiele Kennedy Nnamani Muda Yusuf Muhammadu Buhari
