Your policy causing hardship, masses at receiving end – APC chieftain, Mumuni tells CBN

A member of the Security and Intelligence Committee of Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Ambassador Abayomi Nurain Mumuni, has declared that the introduction of the new naira notes is causing hardship for many Nigerians.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had last year, introduced new N200, N500 and N1000 notes.

The 2011 gubernatorial candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change CPC, in Lagos State, made this disclosure in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Saturday through his media aide, Rasheed Abubakar.

Mumuni, in his reaction, said that what is happening where Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, are still dispensing old notes is an indication that the CBN was not ready for what it intended to do.

He said that if the CBN is interested to change currency, the first thing to do is to wipe out the old currency from circulation.

Mumuni, who said that the masses are at the receiving end, then advised the CBN to extend the deadline for the exchange of the old naira notes for the new ones.

He added that the need to extend the date was necessary in order to reduce the panic among Nigerians, especially at this time when there is fuel scarcity.

“My personal opinion is that the Central Bank of Nigeria is practically not ready to implement the policy on the new notes. When you want to change currency notes, first thing to do is to wipe out the old ones in circulation but even with the very close deadlines, Nigerian banks are still doling out the old currencies.

“The approach should be that once the old notes get to the banks, they are not making their way out, but reverse is the case. It’s either the ATM is not dispensing at all to avoid possible sanctions or you withdraw on the counter and still get old notes very few days to the deadline. In that regard, I think the CBN has not gotten things right.

“The situation is causing some hardships and the masses are on the receiving end. The CBN should take more time for the policy to fully take effect.

“We should learn not to render our people in further hardship, especially the ones struggling to survive. Considering the COVID-19 armageddon which cripples the global economy and affects every home as the case may be.

“Government policies should not be another avenue to impact hardship on the populist, but to play significant impacts in making life easy for the citizens, not otherwise,” he said.