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The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola says the new naira notes policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria has subjected Nigerians to pain, saying the policy is not working at the moment.
The former Governor of Lagos while appearing on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Tuesday, February 6, 2023, said he does not have cash too.
Fashola said, “The facts that I can talk about on the new policy is that I can see pain. I see people at ATMs. I see people in banks crowded struggling to get their money. I take feedback. I don’t have cash, too. I don’t. The policy is not working at this moment. It is causing unintended consequences.”
Lately, Nigerians have been struggling to get cash from commercial banks due to the scarcity of the new naira notes.
Since the CBN extended the naira swap deadline from January 31 to February 10, 2023, it’s been very difficult for Nigerians to withdraw cash from banks’ ATMs as many banks fail to dispense the new notes both on the counter and via ATMs.
Last week, some governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under the aegis of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) met with President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter.
The governors urged the president to allow both the old and new naira notes to co-exist, but Buhari asked them to give him seven days to decide on the issue.
Meanwhile, a judge of a High Court at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, Justice Eleoje Enenche has stopped President Buhari, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and 27 other banks from interfering with the February 10, deadline for currency redesign policy.