Following President Buhari’s directive, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has assured that N200 old notes taken out of circulation will be moved back with immediate effect. He further assured that by the end of February, the CBN would have brought between N700 billion to N800 billion, well in excess of what is needed to run the economy, into circulation, stating emphatically that it is not possible to re-inject more than N3 trillion if the economy is to be healthy.
He explained that the cashless policy was a global policy, saying “Nigeria must go cashless. It is a global policy, checking insecurity and fighting corruption”.
He added that senior officers at the CBN had all been sent out, complimented by “Super agents,” to take new currencies to unbanked rural populations, expressing optimism that the problems he described as “temporary, passing” will go away in no distant future.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after the meeting, Emefiele revealed he had met 15 top banks earlier in the day in an effort to resolve prevailing problems and will do so again later in the evening, appealing to Nigerians to be patient with the process as the current pains will soon ease off.
“Well, the truth is this, we are all servants, and we’re serving Nigerians. As far as I’m concerned, the Attorney-General of the Federation has spoken on this matter and the President has sealed the whole of the issue this morning in his broadcast.
“I think I can only just appeal to Nigerians. Let’s allow this policy to work. This policy is one policy that goes to solve the problem of reducing corruption and illicit financial flows. This policy goes to resolve some of the problems in the economy. This policy also goes to reducing the level of insecurity in the country. So these three issues, which are the tripod of this administration’s policy, are all embedded in this policy, we should just allow it to work. “We keep saying this, there are some temporary pains, but I can assure Nigerians that the long run benefit to Nigeria is overwhelming and we should just give it a chance to work.
“President has given his directives, I have met with about 15 banks this morning and we’ve given them directives about how they should make all the old N200 available, effective today and I can assure Nigeria that this will help to reduce the pains.
“We meet with bankers at least once daily, to get feedback and the rest of them and I think we should just allow this policy work. The temporary pains are regrettable, but I can assure Nigerians that it will be well”, he said.
Emiefele assured that the apex bank will not be a problem to elections, that they will hold successfully.