The Director of the Corporate Communications Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Osita Nwasinobi, has announced a directive for commercial banks in the country to open on Saturdays for business until January 31st, 2023.
Why it matters
According to the apex bank’s official, the CBN is altering the usual work schedule of Monday – Friday to allow Nigerians to exchange existing naira notes for the new ones. The extended day would enable bank customers to deposit all their old currencies before the January 31st, 2023 deadline.
What they are saying
Osita Nwasinobi, the CBN official, said Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) operating in the country have been directed to return the existing currencies to the apex bank. He added “they have also been instructed to receive the existing banknotes beyond the threshold stipulated by the Cashless Policy without charges to customers.”
Quick catch-up
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, shocked citizens in October when he announced the plans of the apex bank to introduce new designs of the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes by December 15th 2022.
The proposed plan aims at mopping up excess cash and combating inflation and insecurity by forcing Nigerians to add currencies currently in circulation into the banking system. The period of exchange would run from December 15th 2022 – January 31st 2022.
Since the announcement, the Naira has crashed ridiculously as people seeking to hide their huge stack of cash from financial institutions in the country have opted to convert Nigeria’s Naira to forex.