New naira: IMF advises CBN to extend February 10 deadline

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Wednesday, counselled the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the February 10 deadline for swapping old naira notes with the redesigned ones.

The IMF gave the counsel in the wake of the challenges faced by Nigerians across the country over the banknote swap process.

The IMF said in a statement, “In 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.”