Emefiele Finally Appears Before House Of Reps, Indicts Banks Over Naira Notes
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, finally appeared before a committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday to defend the new naira notes.
Emefiele said the apex bank was aware of the pain that Nigerians are going through and it was working to address the lapses in the implementation of the naira swap.
The CBN governor, appearing before an Adhoc committee of the house, said he was disappointed over the manner the new naira notes were being spent at various social events.
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According to Emefiele, this has shown that banks breached the CBN directive and guidelines issued on the implementation of the naira swap programme.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said commercial banks must accept the old Naira notes even after the expiration of the 10 February deadline.
Mr Emefiele announced this on Tuesday while appearing before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee looking into the implementation of the policy.
The CBN Governor said he agrees with section 20(3) of the CBN Act, which provides that commercial banks must accept old notes after a deadline.
Section 20 (3) of the Act says: “Notwithstanding Sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section, the Bank shall have power, if directed to do so by the President and after giving reasonable notice in that behalf, to call in any of its notes or coins on payment of the face value thereof and any note or coin with respect to which a notice has been given under this Sub-section, shall, on the expiration of the notice, cease to be legal tender, but, subject to section 22 of this Act, shall be redeemed by the Bank upon demand.”
