CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.
Following the President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had met with the executives of 15 banks after the Nigerian leader’s early Thursday nationwide broadcast, and strategised on the implementation.
Emefiele revealed that at the meeting with the 15 banks’ top officials, he had directed them to make the old 200 Naira banknotes available from Thursday.
In his words: “The President has given his directives; I have met with about 15 banks this morning and given them directives on how they should make the old N200 notes available.”
The apex bank boss made this disclosure after attending a meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the House of Representatives Special Ad Hoc Committee on Naira Redesign Policy, Cashless Policy, and Currency Swap on Thursday.
Describing himself as a servant in a chat with State House Correspondents, Emefiele appealed to Nigerians to allow the policy to work because he believes that the matter of resolving the challenge of illicit financial flows and insecurity will advance the Nigerian economy.
While he expressed his regrets for the hardship and temporary pains induced by the policy, the CBN Governor assured that the apex bank will continue to work to ease the sufferings the cash crunch was causing Nigerians.
Instructively, the President had in his nationwide broadcast directed the CBN to release old N200 notes into circulation to co-exist with new N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes for 60 days.
According to him, old N500 and N1,000 banknotes are no longer legal tender in Nigeria.
He had also apologised to Nigerians over the difficulty experienced in the implementation of the Naira redesign policy.
Seemingly emboldened by the President’s broadcast and their meeting, thereafter, the CBN Governor had informed the journalists that he was following the directive of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and that of the President.
This is thought to hint at most subtly at the ruling of the Supreme Court upholding old N1,000, N500 and N200 naira notes as legal tender.
The Attorney-General of the Federation had asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a suit challenging the CBN’s Naira redesign policy.
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