Rep faults CBN over validity of old, new Naira notes

Rep. Afam Ogene, the Labour Party Caucus Leader, House of Representatives, has faulted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its indecisiveness in the validity of the old and new Naira notes.

Ogene said this in a statement in Abuja on Friday, following clarification by the CBN that the latest Supreme Court pronouncement reversed its earlier ruling.

The CBN had said the apex court’s ruling did not state a definite date that the old N200, N500 and N1000 naira notes would cease to be valid legal tender was not stated by the Apex court.

It would be recalled that the House in a motion by Ogene during plenary on October 24 had asked the CBN to take action concerning the concurrent validity of the two naira notes in circulation.

The motion’ was entitled “Need for Central Bank of Nigeria to sensitise Nigerians about the non-legal status of old Naira notes from January 1, 2025.”

He said that in spite of the unintended factual error in the motion on the concurrent validity of old and the redesigned notes two years after the CBN lack of policy direction was embarrassing

Ogene said that the mix-up or innocent omission of the Supreme Court’s subsisting pronouncement on the validity of both versions of naira notes was acknowledged.

He said the House’s intervention, following the motion on the subject matter, was not conclusive.

The lawmaker said it was based on that the House directed its Committee on Banking Regulations to interface with the apex bank and report back in 21 days.

NAN reports that the motion referenced the earlier Supreme Court pronouncement setting the same deadline following some litigations that trailed the controversial CBN policy.

According to Ogene, but responding to the House resolution, the CBN’s statement curiously said the decision of the House was `calculated to disrupt the country’s payment system.`

He said: “the CBN also urged the people to disregard the information, quoting the latest Supreme Court pronouncement.

“Which country in the world runs its economy with two different sets of unidentical currency notes?

“What was the intention of the CBN in introducing new sets of notes; was it not with an aim at eventually replacing the old sets”? he asked.

He also decried the dilapidated nature of some currencies emanating from the vaults of the nation’s commercial banks.

“Daily, citizens lose as much as between N5, 000 to N10,000 for every N100,000 cashed in various banking halls, due to mutilated and torn notes.

“The CBN, as the country’s apex bank and regulator of the sector, cannot hide under the legalese of ‘deadline ad infinitum’ to shirk its responsibilities to the banking public”, he said.