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Tag: Naira notes

  • Old naira notes valid till 31st December 2023 – Supreme court declares

    Old naira notes valid till 31st December 2023 – Supreme court declares

    The Supreme Court has declared that the old Naira notes remain legal money till 31st December, 2023.

    This has cancelled the initial March 3, deadline set aside by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN).

    Delivering the judgement of the Supreme Court, Justice Emmanuel Agim said the naira redesign policy by the Federal Government was an affront to the 1999 Constitution.

    A hasty redesign of Nigeria’s most important banknotes prompted many states to file lawsuits against the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria to demand that older banknotes continue to be accepted as legal money.

    What you need to know

    Prior to the judgement day, the Federal Government, Bayelsa and Edo states have tried to get the lawsuit filed by 16 states, led by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, struck out by the Supreme Court.

    Prime Business Africa had reported that the 16 states sued FG over the Naira redesign policy, which they stated has affected their citizens and led to hardship and chaos within their states.

    The lawsuit was initially filed by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara, but 13 states joined in the suit, arguing that the deadline of 10 February 2023 was not conducive for the transition from old Naira notes to the redesigned banknotes.

    They told the court that the CBN has not been able to sufficiently meet the demands of persons that deposited their money in the bank when they approach for withdrawal.

    It was disclosed that the Naira redesign policy and the short time to phase out the old Naira notes led to the scarcity of the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, resulting in an economic downturn within their states, as the inability of people to withdraw grounded cash-driven trades in their states.

    Update on Supreme Court judgement

    The Supreme Court rejected the application by FG, Bayelsa and Edo states to strike out the lawsuit from the 16 states after the Attorney of the Federal argued that the apex court doesn’t have jurisdiction on the matter.

    FG said the states failed to join the CBN as defendants in the lawsuit despite the matter centring on the Naira redesign policy led by the central bank.

    Justice Agim said the Supreme Court has jurisdiction on the matter and the 16 states not including the CBN as defendants were the right decision.

    During the reading of the judgement, the judge cited the admittance of President Muhammadu Buhari during a nationwide broadcast where he said the CBN Naira redesign policy is enmeshed in various challenges.

    The apex court also said President Buhari acted like a dictator by disobeying its ruling on 8 February 2023, when the Supreme Court said the old Naira N200, N500 and N1,000 notes remain legal tender.

    Agim told the plaintiffs and the Defendants that in the modern age, the Naira redesign policy turned Nigeria into a country where the people adopted trade by barter in order to survive.

    Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Kogi State counterpart, Yahaya Bello and Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, were in court on Friday during the proceeding

  • New Naira notes scarcity: Buhari extends validity of old banknotes

    New Naira notes scarcity: Buhari extends validity of old banknotes

    President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has ordered the central bank to reintroduce the old 200 naira banknotes into circulation and allow them to coexist with the new ones until April 10th.

    At that point, the old 200-naira banknotes will no longer be usable.

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    Nigerians have experienced lengthy lines at the cash registers, and some have even camped out in front of banks in an effort to get money first.

    In towns and cities, there have been irate demonstrations as people struggle to get help.

    Nigeria last year started circulating newly designed 200, 500 and 1,000 naira notes.

    The deadline to hand in old notes had been extended once, to February 10, after which the notes would become invalid. The deadline was, however, suspended by the Supreme Court last week.

  • Court remands Nigerian actress in prison for ‘abusing’ new naira notes at party

    Court remands Nigerian actress in prison for ‘abusing’ new naira notes at party

    The 31-year-old was arrested following the sharing of an online video of her spraying and stepping on newly ‘redesigned’ naira notes at a party.

    Nigerian actress, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, has been remanded in Kirikiri prison pending the determination of her bail application, for tampering with the naira notes.

    The 31-year-old was arrested following the sharing of an online video of her spraying and stepping on newly ‘redesigned’ naira notes at a party.

    In the video, the actress is seen flaunting wads of the newly redesigned naira notes.

    On Monday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Omoseyin before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, on two counts brought against her.

    One of the count reads, “That you Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin on the 28n day of January, 2023 at Monarch event center, Lekki within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court whilst dancing during a social occasion tampered with the sum of N100, 000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same in the said occasion and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 21 (1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.

    The second read, “That you Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin on the 28th day of January, 2023 at Monarch event center, Lekki within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court whilst dancing during a social occasion tampered with the sum of N100, 000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by dancing on same in the said occasion and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 21 (1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”

    She however pleaded not guilty to the offence.

    In view of her plea, the prosecution counsel, S.I Sulaiman asked the court for a trial date and prayed that the defendant be remanded in the appropriate correctional facility.

    Justice Aneke deferred ruling on the bail application to Wednesday, February 15, 2023 and remanded the defendant in Kirikiri correctional facility.

    The actress was earlier grilled by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for spraying the newly ‘redesigned’ naira notes at a party, which the anti-graft claimed violates Section 21 (5) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act of 2007.

    The actress was arrested by operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Fraud Related Offences Commission, ICPC, on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 along Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, following intelligence report.

    The actress was handed over to the EFCC for additional inquiries the following day.

    A Range Rover and an iPhone were among the items found with her at the scene of the arrest.

  • Naira scarcity: Three APC Governors sue Nigeria’s Buhari over new Naira notes

    Naira scarcity: Three APC Governors sue Nigeria’s Buhari over new Naira notes

    Governors Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara have filed lawsuits against the federal government over the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy.

    Due to a shortage of Naira notes, the Governors have filed a law suit against the Federal government in the Supreme Court.

    The states are asking for a declaration that the CBN’s current implementation of the Federation’s Demonetisation Policy does not adhere to the provisions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Central Bank of Nigeria Act of 2007, or any other applicable laws.

    They also want the court to declare that the three-month notice given by the FGN and the CBN under the directive of President Buhari, the expiration of which will render the old bank notes inadmissible as legal tender, is in gross violation of the provisions of Section 20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 – which specifies that reasonable notice must be given before such a policy and that the limit cannot be outside that provided under Section Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007.

    The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kaduna State, Aisha Dikko, stated in an affidavit that while the naira redesign policy was introduced to improve the cashless policy of the federal government, several transactions cannot be conveniently carried out through electronic means.

    Dikko also averred that the federal government has embarked on the policy within a narrow and unworkable time frame, and this has adversely affected Nigerian citizens within Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states as well as their governments, especially as the newly redesigned naira notes are not available for use by the people as well as the state governments.

    “That the majority of the indigenes of the plaintiffs’ states who reside in the rural areas have been unable to exchange or deposit their old naira notes as there are no banks in the rural areas where the majority of the population of the states reside,” she averred.

    Governors of the ruling party had met with the President last week and pleaded with him to allow old notes and the new ones co-exist.

    The president told them to give him seven days to look into the challenges arising from naira redesign.

    Following a recent meeting, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele warned that the bank was not considering moving the February 10 deadline for the old notes to cease being legal tender.