Emefiele to banks: Make N200 notes available to customers

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has directed commercial banks to adhere to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to make available 200 naira notes for circulation.

Emefiele gave the directive while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.

The CBN Governor said he met with about 15 commercial banks and directed them to ensure that the old 200 naira note remained a legal tender from now till April 10.

He explained that the meeting with the bank executives was to ensure a sufficient supply of the old N200 notes to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians.

Emefiele said: “The truth is that we are all servants. We are serving Nigerians. As far as we are concerned the Attorney General has spoken on this matter and the president has sealed the whole issue this morning in his broadcast.

“I think I can only just appeal to Nigerians, let’s allow this policy to work.

“This policy is one policy that goes to reduce the problem of corruption and illicit financial flows; this policy goes to resolve some of the problems in the economy.

“This policy also goes to reducing the level of insecurity in the country.

“So, these three issues which are the tripod of this administration’s policy are all embedded in this policy.

“We should just allow it to work. We keep saying this, there are some temporary pains, but I can assure Nigerians that the long-term benefit to Nigeria is overwhelming and we should just give it a chance to work.”

Also speaking, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa, expressed reservations over the implementation of the naira redesign policy.

According to him, the way and manner the policy is being implemented is making the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) unpopular ahead of the 2023 general election.

Doguwa, who is the Chairman of the House of Reps Special Adhoc Committee on Naira Redesign, Cashless Policy and Naira Swap, said the committee came to see President Buhari over his broadcast and his directives to the CBN Governor.

The House leader said he told President Buhari that the committee would continue to interface with the CBN on the implementation of his directives.

The lawmaker added that the green chamber would not hesitate to invoke the instrumentality of the law to call the CBN boss to order if he derailed from implementing the directives.

The Star

Segun Ojo