The Senate urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday to extend the use of old Naira notes until July 31, 2023.
This followed a motion on the floor by Senator Sadiq Umar (APC-Kwara North) to redesign the naira.
On December 28, 2022, the Upper Chamber advised the CBN to postpone the phasing out of old currency notes scheduled for January 31, 2023, for six months.
The CBN, on the other hand, has stated that it will meet its January 31, 2023 deadline.
Senator Umar stated that the call is necessary due to the financial hardship that the “hurried” phase-out of old Naira notes would cause Nigeria, particularly the rural populace, who do not have easy access to banking facilities.
He insisted that the redesigned naira notes are scarce and unavailable to those who want to exchange their money for new notes.
“This is a motion to extend the use of the old Naira notes from January 31, 2023 to July 31, 2023,” Senator Umar stated.
“The Senate recalls that we had a resolution in this chamber on 28 December 2022, for the CBN to extend the use of the old notes for six months as well as increase the maximum withdrawal limits permissible.
“The Senate is aware that the withdrawal limit has been increased to N500,000 weekly for individuals and N5 million weekly for corporate organisations.
“However, the CBN insists on ending the use of old Naira notes by the end of this month, which is less than a week away.
Also see: Senate asks CBN to extend old naira notes until June 30.
“Observes that there are no enough new notes in circulation and in fact, the banks’ ATMs that should be dispensing the new notes are still dispensing only the old notes and citizens still have a lot of old notes that they are unable to deposit in banks.
“Right now, there are uncontrollable lines in several states across the country.
“The Senate notes that experiences around the world have shown that such abrupt decisions, if not controlled as planned by the CBN, create chaos and plunge economies into crises, with India being a prime example.
“However, in countries that operate with the order as seen in the United Kingdom, new notes are currently in circulation and they are running smoothly along with the old currency.
“As a result, the Senate resolves that the CBN immediately extend the use of the old notes by six months, from January 31st to July 31st, 2023, with immediate effect.”
Several Senators supported the motion in their contributions, but Senator Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi North) opposed it.
