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The Central Bank of Nigeria has emphasized that there is no shortage of new Naira notes as the January 31 deadline to deposit the old notes draws near.
The Nigerian Senate had also appealed for an extension but the apex bank has underlined emphatically that the deadline would not be extended.
“There is a sufficient supply of the new notes for commercial bank ATMs,” according to Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, who was present in Jos through Musa Jimoh, Director of the Payment System Management Department of the bank.
He urged banks to stop withholding cash from ATMs.
”The CBN has massively supplied the new notes to commercial banks to dispense both at counters and ATMs.
”This is to enable quick circulation and we want to advise commercial banks to desist from keeping the cash away from the public or face the stiffer sanction.”
The CBN Governor claimed that the decision to redesign the currency was made by international standards. He added that currencies are supposed to be updated every five years, but Nigeria took nine years between redesigns.
To raise awareness about the employment of agents to circulate cash in underbanked communities, Emefiele noted that the Monitoring and Sensitization program was intended to address issues with cash circulation.
“The Monitoring and Sensitisation project was activated by the apex bank for investigation of the attitude of banks toward the spread of the new currencies.
”We are equally using it to create awareness on the use of agents to circulate the cash in communities with few or no bank branches available.”
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