Despite public complaints against the deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on full withdrawal of old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes from circulation, the apex bank on Friday launched a countdown to the January 31 deadline when the old notes will cease to be legal tender.
The apex bank while unveiling the countdown on its Twitter page, maintained that the deadline now remained just 24 days and a few hours.
It stated: “The current series of N200, N500, and N1,000 notes remain legal tender until the deadline of January 31, 2023.”
As expected, the latest countdown by the apex bank has been generating bitter comments from Nigerians who expressed disappointment over the monetary authorities’ failure to make the newly redesigned new Naira notes for transactions.
One of those that reacted immediately, Benedict Nwokoye, complained about the scarcity of the new notes and doubted the feasibility of the January 31 deadline for total withdrawal of the old notes
He tweeted: “Like seriously? I went to withdraw money from the ATM (first bank) and was given old notes. I went to the counter to ask for the new notes, I was told I’ll not be given more than 10,000.00. How can the dates be possible when banks are still dispensing old notes?”
Another person, Eddie Onos, believes that the apex bank has not exhibited any seriousness with the deadline based on the paucity of the new notes.
He tweeted: “Can we be serious for once, please? As of today, ATMs and banks are still dispensing the old notes that are supposed to become illegal tender by the 31st of this month. The financial institutions ought to have stopped issuing them out by now.”
It would be recalled that the Senate had on December 28 urged the CBN to extend the deadline on old Naira notes withdrawal from 31st January to 30th June 2023.
During plenary, Senator Ali Ndume cited Orders 41 and 51 to seek the leave of the Senate to move a motion on the urgent need to extend the withdrawal of old currency from circulation.
