*Report by Mudasir Opeyemi
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele,has said that there is no going back on the withdrawal cash limit imposed on Nigerians by the Apex Bank.
Under the new policy, the CBN restricted maximum cash withdrawal over-the-counter by individuals and corporate organisations per week to N100,000 and N500,000, respectively.
Emefiele made the declaration on Thursday after a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in his country home in Daura, Katsina State.
Emefiele said he embarked on a courtesy visit to Buhari to brief him about happenings in the CBN and the economy of the country.
He said Buhari was “very happy and said we should carry on our work, no need to fear, no need to bother about anybody.”
Emefiele also said there were no plans to reverse the new cash withdrawal policy, but added that there maybe some adjustments where it’s necessary.
He again appealed to Nigerians to embrace the policy as the apex bank monitors the situation to allay any hardships.
“We will be reviewing from time to time how this is working because I cannot say that we are going to be rigid.
“But it is not to say that we will reverse, it is not to say that we will change the timing, but whether it is about tricking some amount to be a little bit higher or a little bit lower, and all the rest of them.We will do so because we are humans, we want to make sure that we are making life good for our people. We do not want to make life difficult for them,” Emefiele said
“So, there is no need for anybody to worry, the central bank is monitoring what is happening and I can assure everyone that we are up and alive to our responsibilities and we will do what is right for Nigeria and Nigerians.
“We think, Nigeria as a big country, the biggest economy in Africa, that we need to leap frog into the cashless economy.
“We cannot continue to allow a situation where over 85 percent of the cash that is in circulation is outside the bank. More and more countries that are embracing digitisation have gone cashless.”
Emefiele further stressed that the limitation was not intended to hurt anyone or any organisation but to strengthen the country’s economy.
“I said it at different fora, that this is not targeted at anybody, it’s just meant for the good and development of the Nigerian economy and we can only continue to appeal to Nigerians to please see this policy the way we have presented it,”he said
The CBN boss disclosed that N1 trillion of existing denominations of the currency has been received by the banking system.
“We have taken more than half a trillion and in the bank we also have close to half a trillion. But what we have done in the central bank is to move more people from different departments into currency processing so that they can process this cash as quickly as possible and from there, banks can now move what they have with them,”he said.
He further disclosed that the new naira notes have already been disbursed to the various commercial banks and expect that banks would begin distribution to the public.
“I can only just assure you that it will go round, let us just be calm, luckily the old currency continued to be legal tender till January 31, 2023.
“So, I want to crack a joke, both the painted (new notes) and unpainted (old notes) will operate concurrently as a legal tender. But by January 31, the unpainted one will not be useful to you again, so please take it to your bank as quickly as possible.”
Reacting to the Upper and Lower Chambers reactions about the policy, he said “Well, the Senate is the National Assembly, they are the legislative arm of the government and from time to time, we brief them about what is happening and about our policies and I’m aware that they have asked for some briefings and we will brief them.
“But I think it’s important for me to say that the cashless policy started in 2012. But on almost three to four occasions, we had to step down the policy because we felt that there was need for us to prepare ourselves and deepen our payment system infrastructure in Nigeria.
“Between 2012 and now 2022, that is almost about 10 years, we believe that a lot of electronic channels have been put in place that will aid people in conducting banking and financial service transactions in Nigeria.”