Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria , Godwin Emefiele , says the January 31st deadline for ending the use of the old naira notes will not be extended.
The Governor who made this known on the sidelines of the monetary policy committee meeting says adequate volume of the new currencies have been put in the system.
The monetary policy committee also pushed up key lending rates by 1% to 17.5% , the cash reserve requirement and liquidity ratio were however left unchanged at 32.5% and 30% respectively.
It’s the first monetary policy committee meeting of the year.
The monetary policy rate has once again been pushed up by one percent to 17.5%.
It was increased at the last meeting in November last year by one percent to 16.5%, owing to what the committee described as necessary considering prevailing economic conditions.
This time, the tightening stance is preferable because loosening could greatly undermine the gains of the last four rate hikes
Though inflation moderated year on year in December last year, the economy remained confronted with risk of hyperinflation with adverse consequences on general living standards.
The CBN governor says the January 31st deadline for stopping the use of the old currencies will not be extended.
He assures that an adequate volume of the new currencies have been given to the banks for onward disbursement to the public with super agents in unbanked communities for currency swop.
The governor says between N1.3 to N1.5Trillion in cash has now been deposited in the banks and it hopes this would have increased to 2trillion by the January 31st deadline.
Against the backdrop of allegations that 89trillion in collected stamp duties have been diverted, the governor says the information is false.
He says 370.68 billion is the total amount of stamp duties collected by the banks from 2016-date, out of which FIRS, has disbursed 226.45b to Fedearl Accounts Allocation Committee FAAC .
144.23b is the balance left in the stamp duty account.
The governor however says the bank has contracted 4 major audit firms to do a Forensic audit of the banks, on their stamp duty collection ,and anyone of them caught guilty of any infraction would be made to pay.
CBN MONITORS CIRCULATION OF NEW NOTES IN BENUE
The Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, have expressed satisfaction with the response by commercial banks in Benue State in issuing out the new notes to the public.
The Director, Financial Markets Department of the CBN, Angela Shere-Ejembi, led the Central Bank monitoring team to banking halls and ATM spots to ascertain if the new two hundred, five hundred and one thousand naira notes were being issued to customers.
The central bank officially introduce the newly redesigned naira notes on Thursday, 15, December 2022 across the country.
The notes include, the new two hundred, five hundred and one thousand naira notes.
But till present many persons complain that they have not gotten hold of the new notes.
This is a worry to the CBN, and their reason for this visit to commercial banks in Benue.
One of the sub-team Leaders, and Deputy Director with the CBN, states that the 31st January deadline for circulation of the old naira notes remains sacrosanct.
Areas visited included Commercial banking halls and ATM spots
The Director, Financial Markets Department of the CBN, is satisfied with the response by commercial banks in issuing out the new notes and urged the Public to endeavour to dispose of the old currencies in their possession.
She adds that all the banks visited lived up to expectation as people who came for withdrawal were issued the new notes.
The team is expected to extend the sensitisation to traditional and religious institutions to ensure that no one is caught in the web of the the deadline for the circulation of the old notes.
