The International Monetary Fund has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to extend the deadline to stop the N200, 500, and N1,000 notes from being legal tender.
The IMF gave the counsel in the wake of the challenges faced by Nigerians across the country over the banknote swap process.
The IMF said in a statement, “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 scarcity of the new naira notes occasioned by recent monetary policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria has since led to protests in many parts of the country.
OduNews had earlier reported that the Supreme court restrained the CBN and federal government from implementing the Febraury 10th deadline announced by the apex bank to stop the use of the old notes as legal tender.
More details to follow…
