The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has announced that the bank would release re-designed Naira notes by December 15, 2022.

He also said that existing notes would seize to be regarded as legal tender by January 31, 2023.

Emefiele disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.

The CBN said that it is worrisome that 85 per cent of the currency in circulation is being hoarded by Nigerians.

He further urged Nigerians to proceed to their banks to deposit their Naira notes, adding that the deposit fee would be waived for transactions below N150,000.

Emefiele added that the redesigning of Naira notes would help to curb counterfeit notes, as well as hamper ramson payment to terrorists and kidnappers.

According to Emefiele, the new notes include N200, N500, and N1000.

The CBN governor said the decision was due to persisting concerns with the management of the current series of banknotes, and currency in circulation — particularly those outside the banking system in Nigeria.

He said in recent times, currency management has faced several daunting challenges that have continued to grow in scale and sophistication with attendant and unintended consequences for the integrity of both the CBN and the country.

He affirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari has authorised the redesign, production, and circulation of new N100, N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.

Emefiele said:

“The new and existing currencies shall remain legal tender and circulate together until January 31, 2023 when the existing currencies shall seize to be legal tender.”

According to him, the CBN plans to mop up N3.23 trillion from outside the banking system back into bank vaults in 100 days.

“As of September 2022, we had N3.23 trillion in circulation out of that N2.73 trillion is outside the vault of the bank, so first of all what we want to do is mop all this 3.23 trillion back into the CBN and take control of money supply and we will begin to see how this will rein in inflation no doubt this will have a positive impact on inflation.

“On the timeline for mopping up, I will say today is 26th, so, we have about six to seven days to the end of October till January 31, 2023, which is almost about 100 days to mop up the old currency out of circulation back to the vault.”