Buhari to unveil redesigned naira notes today – Emefiele

• Emefiele assured that Buhari will unveil redesigned naira notes today
• He had previously stated that the apex bank would issue redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes
• Bureau De Change Operators has predicted that the naira exchange rate would appreciate

President Muhammadu Buhari will unveil the redesigned naira N1,000, N500, and N200 notes today, November 23, 2022, according to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele’s statement on Tuesday.

Emefiele said this at the monthly meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the top bank in Abuja. He asserts that the CBN will not extend the deadline for the exchange of all existing notes for newly printed ones at commercial banks.

The CBN MPC increased the monetary policy rate from 15.5% to 16.5% while maintaining all other conditions.

Emefiele had previously stated on October 26, 2022, that the apex bank would issue redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes beginning on December 15, 2022, with the old and new currencies continuing to be accepted until January 31, 2023.

On Tuesday, he reversed course and said the CBN wouldn’t wait until December 15 any longer because the President would introduce the new notes on Wednesday.

The bank chief said, “100 days is enough for any person from any part of Nigeria to deposit his money in the bank and get his money when the new notes are released.

“For information, indeed, we are no longer waiting till December 15th to unveil and begin to release the new notes.

“By the special grace of God, tomorrow, which is the 23rd of November 2022, the President has graciously accepted to unveil the new currencies and the new currencies will be unveiled tomorrow at the Federal Executive Chamber by 10 am.”

READ ALSO: Dollar to Naira Exchange Rate Today November 22, 2022

Meanwhile, the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has predicted that the naira exchange rate would appreciate after the ongoing redesigning of some dominations of the nation’s currency.

President of ABCON, Mr. Aminu Gwadabe, made the prediction in a note on his Whatsapp status yesterday, saying the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was likely, “to close the gap between the flexible versus fixed exchange rate to flood the market with capital inflows.”

Gwadabe, stressed that his outlook for naira in 2023, was that the naira redesign measure would help the CBN to mop up significant proportions of the naira outside the banking vault which hitherto was, “putting pressure on the fragile exchange rate volatility in the parallel market as the demand surge witnessed only spurious and began to thin out gradually.”

He added: “With this scenario and the expectations of the central bank to reduce the gap between the fixed and the parallel market to encourage the critical foreign inflows as a significant liquidity source to strengthen the naira.
“The envisaged liquidity will flood the market as we witnessed in 2016 when they established the I&E window to attract foreign inflows in the market for investment into our vast natural resources.

“It is important for the central bank to continue their doggedness and proactive ness to deepen distribution channels, especially in the critical retail end sector as the liquidity improves by leveraging on the transmissions mechanism role of the BDCs for exchange rate stability and growth of the economy.
“Also, the increasing use of intelligence by the security agencies in tracking source and destinations of financial transactions have made currency substitutions and speculation increasingly difficult.”