Yesterday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) maintained that in line with the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari, only the old N200 banknotes were reissued and circulated concurrently.
CBN also urged members of the public to ignore a contrary report, saying that the CBN or the President has approved the reissuance and release of old N500 and N1000 notes as legal tender. It further denied rumours saying that the financial system will be shut down ahead of the general elections starting on Saturday.
Meanwhile, following a related development, the wife of the president, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, yesterday, denied being the author of a post claiming that the CBN had extended validity period for old N1000 and N500 notes till May 1, 2023. The said message was seen on the First Lady’s verified Instagram handle yesterday, but was later pulled down after a while, as it had been labelled fake news by the CBN.
CBN further denied a false statement circulating on social media that it planned to shut down financial services in the country from February 23 to 27, 2023 ahead of Saturday’s presidential election.
In a national broadcast on the challenges of currency redesign and state of the nation, the president said he was giving the directive to ease the new notes supply among the citizens.
The president had said, “To further ease the supply pressures particularly to our citizens, I have given approval to the CBN that the old N200 bank notes be released back into circulation and that it should also be allowed to circulate as legal tender with the new N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes for 60 days from February 10, 2023 to April 10, 2023 when the old N200 notes ceases to be legal tender.
