Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to consider extending the February 10 deadline for the swapping of old naira notes with new ones.
IMF Resident Representative to Nigeria, Ari Aisen, stated this in a statement are available to newsmen by Office Manager for Resident Representation for Nigeria, Laraba S. Bonnet, on Wednesday.
Aisen cited disruptions to trade and payments resulting from the exercise as one of the reasons to extend the deadline.
“In light of hardships caused by disruptions to trade and payments due to the shortage of new bank notes available to the public, in spite of measures introduced by the CBN to mitigate the challenges in the banknote swap process, the IMF encourages the CBN to consider extending the deadline, should problems persist in the next few days leading up to the February 10, 2023 deadline,” the IMF Resident Representative said.
The statement follows the Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday, which restrained the CBN from going ahead with the February 10 deadline. The Court gave the order in a ruling on a case brought before it by governments of Kogi, Nasarawa and Zamfara States.
CBN had originally fixed the deadline for January 31, but had to extend it following pressures from Nigerians.
