The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau, SAN has said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is under statutory obligation to redeem the old N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes after the January 31 deadline.
The NBA President in a letter addressed to the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, insisted that the law allows Nigerians to redeem their old naira notes at the CBN.
According to a statement by the NBA’s National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Lawal, on Saturday, Maikyau, expressed what he described as telling concerns about the fate of Nigerians with the old currency past the January 31, 2023 deadline, saying, “The law is clear on this issue.”
He cited the provisions of Section 20 (3) of the CBN Act which he said provides that “notwithstanding Sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section, the Bank shall have power, if directed to do so by the President and after giving reasonable notice in that behalf, to call in any of its notes or coins on payment of the face value thereof and any note or coin with respect to which a notice has been given under this Sub-section, shall, on the expiration of the notice, cease to be legal tender, but, subject to section 22 of this Act, shall be redeemed by the Bank upon demand.”
The NBA President noted that “any person who shall be in possession of the old notes which have ceased to be legal tender by 31 January 2023 is at liberty to approach the CBN and demand for the redemption of the notes and the CBN is under statutory obligation to ‘redeem’ the notes.”
Maikyau added that “our recommendation, on this issue is that in addition to educating Nigerians on demonetisation itself, a campaign on what happens to old bank notes after 31 January should be launched so as to adequately inform the public on what to do and prevent or reverse the rising panic or agitations caused by concerns about the inability of Nigerians to swap their old notes for the new notes by 31 January.”
