The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a major financial agency of the United Nations and an international financial institution, has requested that the Nigerian federal government extend the deadline for depositing the old naira notes.
It would be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through its governor, Godwin Emefiele, had announced Friday, February 10, as the deadline for exchanging the 500, 200, and 1000 notes.
The move became significant after the January 31 deadline previously issued by the apex bank was not feasible amid anger and naira scarcity in the country, resulting in hardship.
IMF in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, February 8, by Laraba Bonet, hinged its plea on the hardship Nigerians are currently going through.
“In light of hardships caused by disruptions to trade and payments due to the shortage of new banknotes available to the public, in spite of measures introduced by the CBN to mitigate the challenges in the banknote swap process, the IMF encourages the CBN to consider extending the deadline should problems persist in the next few days leading up to the February 10, 2023 deadline,” part of the statement read.
IMF’s statement came immediately after the Supreme Court banned the federal government and the CBN from enforcing the February 10 deadline for exchanging and depositing the old naira notes.
