Emefiele Gives Reasons As Supreme Court Rules On Naira Policy

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, explained at the Supreme Court today why the new naira note is scarce in the country after weeks.

Naija News reports that there has been an outcry by Nigerians over hardship in accessing the new Naira notes while the old ones have been declared invalid for transactions by the apex bank.

The state governments of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara had, on February 3rd, dragged the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over the naira redesign policy of the CBN.

The states urged the Supreme Court to compel President Muhammadu Buhari, the CBN, and commercial banks to rescind the February 10 deadline for the old N200, N500, and ₦1,000 banknotes as Nigeria’s legal tender

During the Wednesday ruling, Emefiele said: “Panic mop up of notes, the CBN has also noticed that some of our leaders are buying the notes and storing them for whatever purposes.

“We have also noticed that some Nigerians are catalysing the time transition to charge exorbitant fees, these selfish actions for personal monetary gains are causes of hardship for Nigerians and come at the expense of lives and livelihood.”

The CBN governor reiterated that the window for swapping old naira for new notes had closed with its February 10 deadline lapse.