The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has disclosed that plans to gradually phase out the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes are ongoing, as new notes are still being issued.
Acting Governor of the apex bank, Folashodun Shonubi, revealed this on Tuesday after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
Recall that in October 2022, Godwin Emefiele, the suspended former CBN Governor, announced plans to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 bills.
He had asked Nigerians to deposit their old notes before January 31, 2023, when they would cease to be legal tender.
However, after an extension of the demonetization by the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, the Supreme Court in March 2023 invalidated the naira redesign policy, ruling that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes remain legal tender till December 31, 2023.
Giving updates on the demonetisation policy on Tuesday, Shonubi said the old notes would “slowly, and overtime be replaced.”
According to him, the old notes were being exchanged for the new ones whenever it was being requested by the commercial banks.
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“When a currency is printed and sent out. It is expected that it will go through a number of cycles, and then over time, will become one and then be replaced. That’s what we’re doing.
“We had to put out or re-put out old notes. And as they’re coming in, they’re being processed and returned to us as not issuable. We are then bringing out and replacing them with the new notes.
“We believe that we have an optimal level of the currency out there and so much of what’s being done is replacement to keep the level, rather than just putting money out there.
“And that is seen by the fact that the banks, whenever they come to us for notes, we provide it to them. If it wasn’t enough, they will be asking us for more. If it was too much, they’ll be dumping that much more on us.
“So, we will slowly, and over time you will see the old notes replaced out of the system with the new notes that’ll be the norm.
“This will be out of practice, not fanfare, you’ll just see it slowly morph from old to new,” Shonubi said.
