The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has finally honored the invitation of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, following a threat by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, to issue a warrant for the governor’s arrest.
Emefiele was repeatedly invited by the House over the redesigned naira notes and weekly withdrawal limit – policies that have stirred chaos across the country.
Late last year, the CBN announced the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes and also the new policy limiting weekly individual and corporate withdrawal to N500,000 and N5 million respectively. However, the policies were faulted and Emefiele was invited by the lawmakers amid calls for them to be adjusted.
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The central bank had earlier, fixed January 31 as the deadline for Nigerians to return old naira notes to the banks. This triggered chaos across the country as there was not enough redesigned naira notes in circulation, even as the deadline nears.
With these exigencies, the House was irked that the CBN governor has snubbed its invitations, which were meant to address the issues.
The Chairman of the House ad hoc committee looking into the matter, Alhassan Doguwa, had last week, vowed to ensure that Emefiele is arrested if he fails to appear before the House.
But following intense pressure from all corners of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday, approved the extension of the January 31 deadline to February 10. But the house, not satisfied with the gesture, insisted that Emefiele must appear before its committee.
“The 10-day extension for the exchange of the old naira notes is not the solution,” Doguwa said.
The threat appears to have forced the central bank governor to appear before the House, where he said commercial banks must accept the old Naira notes even after the expiration of the 10 February deadline.
In the extension announcement he made on Sunday, Emefiele said an additional 10-day window that will commence from February 10 to 17, 2023, is open to enable Nigerians to return the old naira notes in their possession to the CBN (not commercial banks) after the February 10 deadline.
Gbajabiamila had last week cited Section 20 (3) of CBN Act, which mandates the apex bank to redeem the face value of the recalled currency upon demand, even after the expiration of the notice of recall. He said notwithstanding the deadline imposed by the central bank, the House will see to it that this provision of the law is honored in full.
“Now let me explain that again: the CBN Act, under Section 20, allows the Central Bank to change the legal tender. It also says that after the expiration date, such naira notes changed will no longer be legal tender, but it also says that even five months, three months, or two months after, even in June, all the old notes presented to the bank shall be redeemed by the bank,” he said.
Based on this section of the CBN Act, which outlaws the February 10 deadline, Emefiele succumbed to the demand of the House committee.
He said: “The law which says even after the old currency has lost its legal tender status that we are mandated to collect these money. And I stand with the House of Reps on this. What does that mean? It could have lost its legal tender status which means we have moved on.
“But if you have your money that you have not been able to send to the bank we will certainly give you the opportunity to bring them back into the CBN to redeem it. Either you pay it to your bank account or you want to do an exchange—we will give you. You will not lose your money. This is the assurance I give to Nigerians.”