Allow Both New And Old Notes To Circulate Side By Side, APC Governors Urge Buhari

By Uche Mbah

Governors under the aegis of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, rose from a meeting Friday with President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding from him to prevail on the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to allow both the new and old notes to circulate side by side with the belief that it will help assuage the sufferings of Nigerians engendered by the difficulties in assessing the new Naira notes.

Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who spoke on their behalf after the meeting, to journalists, said the move has become imperative because the CBN mopped up over N2 trillion old notes and released N300bn.

El Rufai spoke in Hausa.

“We informed the President about this. And he said within the next seven days, he will talk to the CBN and other agencies. He also said the Commercial Banks are at fault and he will see how to resolve this.

“But he didn’t indicate whether or not there will be an extension. He only said he will have to find out what is really happening.

“We in the States have seen that if this issue is not brought under control, it may lead to tension across the Nation. It can mar the elections and even prevent the conduct of elections altogether.

Due to this, the President said he would consider it. And our (PGF) Chairman, Abubakar Bagudu, is inside with the President,” el-Rufai said.

The CBN cashless policy is meant to drastically reduce the amount of cash in circulation while encouraging electronic Banking. But el Rufai insisted that more cash-at least N1 trillion- ought to have been put into circulation before implementing the policy.

Only recently, the CBN ordered Banks to peg over-the-counter withdrawal to a maximum of N20, 000.

According to him, this have mostly affected petty traders and those with perishable goods like tomatoes. He lamented the amount of wastage resulting from the policy.

“If you consider some states and local government areas, they don’t have banks. Some have challenges with the PoS outlets. As a result, people cannot buy goods in the market. Those trading tomatoes from the North to Lagos are running at a loss because their goods are getting spoiled. No money to buy them”, he said.