Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufa’i, has called on Nigerians to keep spending the old naira notes, a directive that is in defiance of the Federal Governments currency swap policy.
The Governor made the assertion while speaking with a political audience in the State, urging them to stop thronging banks to swap their old notes or obtain new ones.
The Godwin Emefiele-led CBN had said old denominations of the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes would cease to be Nigerian legal tender from February 10 as a major plank of its new cash policy. The decision has left many Nigerians in a quandary as the new notes remain acutely scarce.
According to him, the policy will be reversed once APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu becomes president.
Everyone, especially people in Kaduna should not be disturbed because of the naira swap deadline, said the Kaduna governor in the Hausa language. Continue running your businesses and daily activities with whatever notes (old or new) you have.
He added, And we will make sure to address this problem as soon as we win the election. That will be the first issue to tackle if we win the election.
Dont rush yourself into taking old naira notes to the bank, and wasting your time in the unnecessary queues at the bank. Nobody can stop you (people) from using the notes, El-Rufai assured.
When we come to power, (Insha Allah), if Bola Tinubu becomes the president, well give people more time to get rid of the old naira notes.
Recall that the new currency/swap policy has jointly been condemned by loyalists of the Partys presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with some claiming that it is a calculated attempt to scuttle his ability to win the elections.
The CBN has disclosed that the old denominations of the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes would cease to be Nigerian legal tender from February 10th as part of a wider plan to strengthen the naira. However, the new notes have conspicuously remained scarce.
