New Naira notes: NLC calls CBN’s Jan. 31 deadline ‘unrealistic’

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s January 31 deadline for discontinuation of use of the old Naira notes as ‘unrealistic,’ warning further that the regulatory bank’s action ‘will also cause avoidable panic and pains to Nigerians.’

The labour group which also backed earlier calls by the senate to the CBN to extend the deadline, said it stands with the National Assembly on the call to review the deadline set by the CBN to phase out old naira notes in the country.

Both the House of Representatives and the senate had earlier urged the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele to shift the January 31, 2023 deadline to a later date to allow Nigerians access the new notes described as scarce.

It would be recalled that the CBN Governor, Emefiele, last Tuesday, insisted the regulatory bank will not extend the deadline to halt the use of the old 200, 500, and 1000 Naira notes.

Emefiele said this during the CBN/Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) briefing in Abuja.

“I don’t have good news for those who feel we should shift the deadline, my apologies,” Emefiele said.

“The reason is because 90 days should be enough for those who have the old currency to deposit it in the banks,” Emefiele said.

Reacting to the CBN decision, the senate, also last Tuesday, argued that the policy should be prolonged because banks are still issuing the old notes due to a lack of new naira notes, as the Upper Chamber also suggested extending the deadline till July 31, 2023.

The lawmakers re-echoed the hardship the programme is putting Nigerians through, noting that there are lengthy lines at banks all over the nation as customers wait to deposit their old notes and obtain new ones.

Additionally, several lawmakers requested that the Senate support the House of Representatives’ earlier proposal for an extension of the policy and order CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele to extend the deadline.

However, making known its position on the new Naira notes, in an interactive session with journalists, in Abuja, Thursday, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said that phasing out the old notes within the time frame given by the CBN ’will not only be unrealistic but will also cause avoidable panic and pains to Nigerians.’

He said that though the apex bank had given 31st of January as deadline to withdraw the old notes, commercial Banks, ATMs and other financial outlets are still giving out and dispensing old notes less than seven days to the deadline.

“I remember I went to about ten banks and none of them was dispensing the new notes”.

“We have tried to respond officially by writing to the CBN governor. We also wrote to the President to say that this new policy of changing our Naira needs to be revisited.

“If you go to the rural areas and see the chaotic nature of how people have come with their money to change, it has become a problem.

“The state I come from, you have only three banks in three local governments out of 27 local governments, all the other local governments, 24 of them do not have banks and some of them are not accessible.

“It is the poor masses and even the working class that will feel the pinch of this policy because how will you not withdraw the old currency when the new one is not available; the day they made that pronouncement, what they should have done is to flood everywhere with the new naira notes, he lamented.

While calling on the federal government to rethink the policy to alleviate the sufferings, the NLC President said that people are already being ‘pushed to the wall’ over the issue, while also pointing out that ‘in other climes when currencies are changed, the old currencies are spent alongside the new one until it ends up in the bank and will not come into circulation again.’

The NLC said that as good as the policy is, its implementation is making people see it as punishment.

“We align ourselves fully with the position of the Senate because we go to the rural areas, we have workers in the rural areas where many of our local governments that don’t have banking facilities are located.

“So basically, we call for this policy to be reviewed and to give extension so that all the old notes can then be mopped up by the banks”, Wabba said.