26th January, 2023
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to revisit its new naira notes policy, adding that the January 31 deadline to phase out old notes in circulation in the country should be extended.
Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, said this when speaking with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja on his achievements and challenges as congress president for the past eight years.
Wabba, who was elected as president in 2015, has served two terms and has only a few weeks to bow out.
He said that the directive of the Senate of the National Assembly seeking an extension of the deadline was appropriate.
Wabba said that this was owing to the fact that the majority of Nigerians who live in remote areas where banks do not exist were yet to access the new Naira notes.
According to him, as NLC, “we have tried to respond officially by writing to the CBN governor. We also wrote to the President to say that this new policy of changing our Naira needs to be revisited.
“It is obvious that even in the city centres, banks are still dispensing old notes and this is correct. I remember, I went to about 10 banks and none was actually dispensing the new notes.
“In fact, most of the banks now, if you are lucky, will dispense only a few notes and you can check that around.
“So the new notes are not available and they are not in circulation and the old notes are being rejected.
“Even in city centres, where we have banks, the banks are not dispensing.
“If you go to the rural areas and see the chaotic nature of how people have come with their money to change, it has become a problem,” he said.
(NAN)