President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday unveiled the new naira notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations.
Speaking at the unveiling shortly before the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Cohncil meeting, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele blamed the lack of political will by past leaders for the long over due redesigning, which he said was last done about 19 years ago.
Emefiele said that in line with the global best practices, the naira was supposed to be redesigned and re-issued between five and eight years intervals.
He said, “In the past, I have to confess that attempts by the CBN to redesign and reissue the naira notes have been resisted. It is only President Muhammadu Buhari that has the courage to do so.”
He also added, “After today, the CBN will begin to redesign and reissue the naira for every five to eight years.”
The CBN boss said that Nigeria has gone cashless and that security agencies would monitor people making withdrawal at the counter to know how much being withdrawn and also monitor the usage of the money.
He said there was no need to insinuate that the policy was targeted at anyone.
Emefiele said that the CBN was determined in ensuring that the provision of the law on volume of money one should carry is followed.
“The world has moved to cashless economy and the CBN has moved to cashless economy.
“We will restrain the volume of cash someone will withdraw over the counter. We will follow up with the person’s data to know the reason for such withdrawal,” he said.
For those calling for extension of time for the usage of the old notes, the CBN boss said, “we will not go with people that want extension of time. From today, this currency that was re-issued will become a legal tender.”
He said there is no local government area in the country where there is no bank agent, adding that there is over one million point across the country that people should go and deposit the old notes.
Emefiele also assured that the new notes cannot be counterfeited because of the features in them.
