The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of old Naira notes from circulation.
The bank had fixed February 10, 2023 as deadline for the swap and mopping up of old bank notes, but the new N1000, N500 and N200 notes are still hard to come by at deposit money banks.
The scarcity of the new notes has sparked protests across the country.
“In light of the hardship 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 IMF says.
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