President Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled the redesigned 200, 500 and 1000 Naira notes in a brief ceremony held at the Council Chambers, State House in Abuja, shortly before the commencement of this week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. Present for the unveiling ceremony includes the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele; Minister of State Finance, Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba; Managing Director of Nigerian Security, Printing and Minting, Ahmed Halilu; amongst other top government officials.
Speaking to State House Correspondents shortly after the unveiling ceremony, the CBN governor said, “This move is to enable the CBN to have control over the size of money in circulation. There is no need to think that the program is targeted at anyone.
“During my speech at the unveiling, I said that plans for this started early in the year. We considered the pros and cons carefully. In the past, attempts to redesign and reissue currencies have been resisted. Only a president of Muhammadu Buhari’s character could have made it happen”.
According to reports, this is the first time in 19 years that the country’s Naira notes will be redesigned.
Emefiele further said, “As of 2018, we had 86,000 touchpoints nationwide where Nigerians could deposit and withdraw money. In October 2022, that number has risen to 1.4 million touchpoints. That is to say, we have over 1.4 million bank branches, POS points and other ancillary outfits to enable Nigerians to return the old notes”.
He also said that the Naira notes would now be redesigned after every 5 to 8 years, as empowered by the Constitution.
According to the apex bank, the new Naira notes are meant to be released for circulation on December 15, 2022, and would be used as legal tender along with the old Naira notes until January 31, 2023; which is the deadline for the use of the old Naira notes as legal tender.
