Facts About the New Naira Notes and Old Notes
On the 26th of October, 2022, The Central Bank of Nigeria announced that it would redesign some old Naira notes consisting of ₦200, ₦500 and ₦1,000 notes. The announcement was made by the Central Bank’s Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
These new naira notes according to CBN will begin circulating from the 15th of December 2022. They will be used together with the existing notes until the 31st, of January 2023, which is the deadline for the acceptance of the old notes as legal tender.
As at the end of September 2022, available data at the CBN indicate that N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation, was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country; and supposedly held by the public. So this exercise is necessary to prevent the hoarding of naira notes.
In this article, we answered most questions about the naira redesign and the deadline for the use of the old naira notes.
Why did CBN redesign the Naira notes?
1. To prevent hoarding and control currency in circulation.
2. To
check the Shortage of clean and fit naira notes in circulation.
3. To adhere to global best practices
that require currency to be redesigned every 5 to 8 years. As the naira notes
have not been redesigned for over 19 years.
4. To improve the security of banknotes.
5. To mitigate the increase in
counterfeiting of high-denomination Naira banknotes.
6. To
reduce the overall cost of currency management.
What is the difference between the old Naira notes and the new ones?
The new notes retained basically all its features except for
the rebranding of their colours and additions of new security features which
the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele said, would make it impossible to be
counterfeited.
The new ₦1000 note has a blue colour, the new ₦500 comes in green colour, and the new ₦200 has the old ₦500 red colour. All the new notes retained their original photographs of past leaders that it had.
Who printed the new naira notes?
The Nigerian Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) PLC produces the redesigned currencies locally. Only 4 out of the 54 African countries print their currencies in their countries, and Nigeria by this is one of them. The majority of African countries print their currencies abroad and import them the way we import other goods.
When will the new naira notes be released?
Does it mean the
old naira notes will be invalid from December 15, 2022?
No, they won’t. The new
and existing naira notes will be in circulation together. They will both be acceptable
as a means of exchange for the purchase of goods and services. However, the old
notes will cease to be legal tender after the 31st of January, 2023.
Will cash deposits
cost more because I am returning huge cash?
No, there is no charge for
deposits. The CBN has also suspended bank charges with immediate effect to
further encourage people to make more deposits of the old 200, 500 and 1,000. This
is the best part. This means you can deposit as much money as you want without
any bank charges.
When is the deadline to return naira notes?
You
have till the 31st of January 2023 to return old ₦200, ₦500 and ₦1,000 notes. This is because they will no longer be accepted
as a means of exchange for the purchase of goods and services after the 31st of
January, 2023. CBN has continued to warn that it has no plan of extending the
date.
Conclusion
You must make your cash deposits early to avoid the stress and crowd that accompany the deadline. Also start Prioritising
the use of digital channels like USSD, mobile apps and internet banking for
your transactions instead of keeping a lot of cash in your possession. This is
because the new CBN policy has set limits to the physical cash an individual or
business can withdraw.
Communicate this information to the people around you so that they are
aware and take action on time too.
What if I don't have banks in my area?
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