New Notes: Presidential Aide Accuses CBN Of Deceiving Buhari

• Contradicts President’s blaming Banks’ CEOs for “selfishness and inefficiency”

BY EDMOND ODOK – With the February 10 new deadline for the Naira swap policy fast approaching, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Ajuri Ngelale has stirred the hornet’s nest with claims that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, dished out false information to President Muhammadu Buhari on the availability of newly redesigned notes nationwide

According to the presidential aide, the apex bank has been unfair in serving half-truths to Mr President on the current position of things, describing claims of an adequate supply of the new notes to all banking branches across the country as “absolutely false”.

Speaking during an interview on TVC, Ngelale said; “What we are working to do is to ensure that Mr President is given effective and true information that the reports that have been given by the Central Bank of Nigeria that they have adequately supplied all banking branches in the country with sufficient amounts of the new Naira notes, that this is absolutely false. It is evident at this point.

“And of course, Mr President, being the pro-people, defender of the masses that he has always been, did the right thing when the intelligence reached him that indeed, he was getting false intelligence from the Central Bank, which was to extend the deadline from January 31 to February 10, 2023”.

To further drive home his claims against the CBN, Ngelale said; “Now, clearly with the adjustment in the deadline, it was also announced that other agencies such as the EFCC and the ICPC are now actively involved in the oversight about the distribution of the new Naira notes to banks’ branches across the country as well as rural cash swaps with the over 30,000 Super agents that are being sent out.

“So, there is an extra level of oversight and monitoring that has now been added to the process. But with that said, it is absolutely evident that President Muhammadu Buhari is pragmatic and he is going to defend the masses of this country.

“If he (President Buhari) gets any intelligence that during the course of this 10-day extension window, that the wrong things have been done or the right things have not been done, that these new Naira notes have not been made available to the masses of our people across the urban centres and across the rural communities across the country, the President has that option on the table of extending that deadline and that will be left to his discretion.”

On the way forward in addressing the obvious cash crunch in the country, the Presidential aide stated that; “It’s going to be based on what he (The President) sees happening across the country over the next several days. Of course, we are heartened by the new information we received today from the central bank that now over-the-counter provisions of the new Naira notes will be made available to banking customers across the country.”

Interestingly, the Presidential aide’s position clearly contradicts that of the President, who has accused some banks’ Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of being complicit in the current scarcity of the new Naira notes.

Addressing the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors who met him at the Presidential Villa seeking a review of government policy on the Naira, President Buhari berated the banks’ CEOs for their “selfishness and inefficiency”, noting that they have not done well in circulating the new notes.

The President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, had said; “Some banks are inefficient and only concerned about themselves. Even if a year is added, problems associated with selfishness and greed won’t go away.”

Recalled that the CBN had, in October 2022, announced the plan to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, while advising Nigerians to deposit their old notes before January 31, 2023, when they would cease to be legal tender.

However, the deadline was been shifted to February 10, 2023, with many Nigerians finding it difficult to obtain the new Naira notes to replace the old ones