The National Council of State meeting ended in Abuja on Friday with a call on the Central Bank of Nigeria to step up efforts at making new Naira notes available to Nigerians or recirculate the old notes to ameliorate the hardship that the people have been facing.
Scarcity of cash has hit Nigeria for close to two weeks with the currency redesign policy by the CBN and the initial deadline of January 31, 2023, by the apex bank to to stop the circulation of the old notes of N200, N500 and N1000.
The CBN said the policy is to promote financial inclusion, check excess cash in circulation, deepen the cashless policy and also check the activities of vote-buying politicians especially with the approaching national elections.
The CBN extended the deadline for the circulation of the old notes to February 10 (today). But the implementation and management of the whole process have been chaotic. There is a huge shortage of the redesigned Naira notes with thousands of bank customers queuing up endlessly at ATMs across cities waiting for the unavailable banknotes. Some have accused the CBN of not printing enough notes to replace the N1.9 trillion that it said had been mopped up. Angry bank customers have taken to the streets protesting and sometimes violently in Ibadan, Abeokuta and Benin City against the development.
The Supreme Court earlier on Wednesday in an interim injunction restrained the federal government from stopping the circulation of the old notes on February 10. Three state governments – Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara instituted the suit before the apex court citing violation of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in the implementation of the CBN policy.
Network8tvnews reported earlier in the day that the cash crisis formed a major point of focus at the meeting which lasted over four hours.
At the end, the meeting presided over President Muhammadu Buhari and with former heads of state, serving governors, the leadership of the National Assembly and some retired past top officials in attendance backed the Naira redesign policy. It however frowned at the hardship that Nigerians have been subjected to. And after being briefed by Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, the Council suggested that old notes be recirculated if the apex bank is unable to make enough new notes available to Nigerians or is unable to print new ones.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Governors Darius Ishaku and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Taraba and Lagos States respectively, briefed journalists after the deliberation.
Malami said the Council agreed that the country is on course as regards preparations for the general elections and that those in attendance are happy with the Independent National Electoral Commission over its preparedness for the exercise which begins with the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25. The minister said the meeting also backed the Naira redesign policy and agreed on the need for an aggressive action on the part of the CBN in its implementation especially as regards making more money available to Nigerians.
Ishaku said the views across board is that the policy is generally accepted but a major of implementation should be bridged. He said the most popular out of the many views on the situation is that the CBN Governor should make money available in quantum and that if the new notes aren’t available or printing them could be difficult the old notes should be recirculated to ease the tension especially for the poor people across the country.
Apart from the CBN Governor, the hybrid meeting also received briefings from the Chairman of INEC and the Inspector-General of Police.
