The Senate has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to urgently extend the withdrawal date of old naira notes from January 31, 2023, to June 31.

The Senate’s resolution was sequel to a point of order raised by Sen. Mohammed Ndume (APC-Borno) at the plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.

The CBN had on October 26 announced plans to redesign three naira notes out of the existing eight banknotes.

These are the N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations which took effect on Thursday, December 15 after its launch by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The apex bank said the new and existing currencies shall remain legal tender and circulated together until January 31 when the existing money will cease to be legal tender in Nigeria.

Raising Orders 41 and 51 of the Senate Standing Rule, Ndume said the call for an extension of the date should be considered a matter of urgent national importance in order to forestall imminent hardship on Nigerians.

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Ndume said: “This Senate notes that many Nigerian banks on Thursday, December 15, opened their vaults to customers and depositors to exchange their old currency notes for the newly redesigned currency notes which have a stipulated deadline of January 31.

“Some Nigerians are already envisaging long queues in the banking hall across the country as a result of people trying to get access to the new naira notes.

“The old notes are expected to be in circulation along the new ones until Jan. 31 when the old ones are expected to be phased out.

“It is expected that many Nigerian businesses will start to rid the old notes as soon as banks start paying redesigned notes to customers.”

The lawmaker stated that access to the new notes would be compounded by a recent circular by the CBN which limited the amount of cash withdrawal by corporate entities to withdraw within a certain period of time.

“The withdrawal of old notes from circulation if not extended beyond Jan. 31, many Nigerians will be thrown into hardship and to avoid the repeat of 1984 experience withdrawal of old notes,” he added.

Contributing, Sen. Adamu Aliero (PDP-Kebbi) said that it was true that in rural areas, people were not aware that there was going to be a currency change.

“So this motion is very apt and timely. If we insist on the date given by CBN, it will cause a lot of hardship for our rural dwellers.

“Majority of our people live in rural areas where there are no banks and PoS. It is appropriate we extend the time as suggested in the motion,” Aliero said.

The Star