BANKS RUN OUT OF NEW NAIRA, DEMAND SOARS

Mixed reactions greeted the disbursement of the new naira notes that officially went into circulation on Thursday with many bank customers demanding the new notes. In contrast, a few others snubbed the latest bills in banking halls across major Nigerian cities.
The newly redesigned N1,000, N500 and N200 bills finally became a legal tender on December 15, 2022, over three weeks after the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), unveiled them at the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had on October 26 announced plans to redesign the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, while also declaring that the old denominations would cease to be a legal tender by January 31, 2022.
Emefiele stressed that redesigning the local currency became necessary to tackle inflationary problems, currency counterfeiting, insecurity and other issues plaguing Nigeria.
He further noted that the currency redesign aimed at controlling currency-in-circulation and ransom payments to kidnappers and terrorists.