The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Sunday got a 10-day extension approval from President Muhammadu Buhari for the swapping of old currency notes to new ones.
The new move comes as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) again extended the deadline for collecting permanent voter’s cards (PVCs) across the country.
February 5, 2023 is the new deadline for collecting the voting instrument, according to the INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, after a meeting of the electoral management body’s Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs).
“Arising from reports from the various States and discussions with Resident Electoral Commissioners, the Commission has decided to further extend PVC collection in all its Local Government Offices nationwide by an additional one week.
In Daura, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, told told journalists that the new deadline is now Feb. 10. For changing old notes.
Emefiele, says those who have not changed their old notes now have the 10-day breather.
A report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the redesigned Naira notes, comprising N200, N500 and N1,000, became legal tender on Dec. 15, 2022, after they were unveiled by Buhari on Nov. 23, 2022, in Abuja.
Reports by correspondents of NAN across the country on Saturday indicated that traders and business owners were asking their constomers to pay with new notes.
It was also discovered that some of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were still dispensing the old Naira notes, while there were long queues at few ATMs dispensing the redesigned Naira notes.
Some banks dispensing the new notes had configured their ATMs to dispense N5,000 or N10,000 per transaction.
Also, some Point of Sale (PoS) operators were still paying with old Naira notes, while some who had the redesigned Naira notes increased their charges by 100 to 200 per cent.
In its case INEC says, “The ongoing collection of PVCs nationwide will therefore continue and end on 5th February 2023,” Okoye said in a statement on Saturday.
“This is the second time the Commission is extending PVC collection nationwide and this will be the last extension of the exercise.
“The collection period has further been extended by an additional two hours and will start at 9 a.m and end at 5 p.m daily including Saturdays and Sundays.”
“The Commission once again salutes the patience and doggedness of citizens”.
It called on Nigerians to report sharp practices in PVC collection centres, assuring that the Commission will act on them.
“The Commission will continue to act on all reported cases of sharp practices during the ongoing PVC collection and will ensure that no Nigerian is disadvantaged and all those that carried out valid registration have an opportunity of collecting their PVCs.”
