IMF Advises Emefiele
OpenLife Nigeria reports that as the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, handed down a temporary halt to the implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s February 10 deadline for depositing old notes in commercial banks across Nigeria, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, has offered advice to the Godwin Emefiele led CBN management.
According to the IMF, through a statement made available to OpenLife Wednesday afternoon, IMF advised the Godwin Emefiele led CBN management to consider a review of it’s earlier stand to the effect that old notes can no longer be deposited in commercial banks.
“In light of hardships caused by disruptions to trade and payments due to the shortage of new bank notes 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,” the Funds said.
Meanwhile, the apex court on Wednesday ruled in favour of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states, who, in a suite against the federal government sought a restraining order to stop the full implementation of the naira redesign policy of the CBN.
The three states prayed the court to grant an interim injunction stopping the CBN from ending the timeframe within which the old N200, N500, and N1000 notes will cease to be legal tender.
The plaintiffs said since the announcement of the policy, there has been an acute shortage in the supply of the new naira notes in their states, adding that citizens who have dutifully deposited their old currency notes have increasingly found it difficult and sometimes next to impossible to access the new notes for their daily activities.
Asides from the unavailability of the new notes, the plaintiffs also submitted that the notice period given by the federal government was inadequate.
They submitted that the 10-day extension is insufficient to address the challenges plaguing the policy.
The plaintiffs have also filed a motion on notice to abridge the time within which the respondent may file and serve a counter-affidavit for an accelerated hearing.
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