The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had advised the Central to extend the February 10 deadline for circulation of the old currency notes.
The IMF in a statement signed by Laraba Binet urged the CBN to consider yet another extension in view of the hardship caused by the scarcity of the new Naira notes.
“In the light of hardships caused by disruptions to trade and payments due to the shortage of new bank notes available to the public, in spite of measures introduced by the CBN to mitigate the challenges in the banknote swap process, the IMF encourages the CBN to consider extending the deadline should problems persist in the next few days leading up to the February 10, 2023 deadline.” The statement reads
The IMF advisory is coming on shortly after of an order was granted by the CBN to extend the deadline for the currency swap on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court had halted the move by the Federal Government to ban the circulation of the old Naira notes by February 10, 2023.
Justice John Okoro led a seven man team of justices to temporarily stop the government’s deadline while ruling in an exparte application brought by three northern governments of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states on Wednesday.
