The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has said that he does not understand the connection between the apex bank’s cash swap policy and the security issue being raised by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje.

This appears to be a reaction to the statement by Ganduje where he asked President Muhammadu Buhari to postpone his planned visit to Kano State due to security concerns over the currency swap and hardship caused by the naira redesign.

This was made known on Sunday by Emefiele during a chat with journalists after a meeting with President Buhari in Daura, where he went to seek his approval for the CBN to extend the deadline for swapping of old naira notes with the redesigned notes from January 31, 2023, to February 10, 2023.

Emefiele, who said that he did not want to join issues with the Kano State Governor, noted that he wants to remain focused on his assignment.

What the CBN Government is saying

Emefiele during the media chat said, ‘’Truthfully speaking, I think the Kano State Governor is a respected elder statesman in the country and I would not want to join issues with him. I am saying that we want to remain focused on our assignment.

‘’Like I said earlier, in Nigeria we have 1.4 million super agents touch points all over the country, in our various local governments, in our villages, people who are selling sweets, people who are selling kola nuts, people who are selling even foods in their kiosks, in their shops, they have points from where you can easily do cash in and cash out services.

‘’However, what we have done under this exercise, we have targeted 30,000 super agents out of these 1.5 million people in our various areas where we know that these areas are really unbanked or underbanked and our designated CBN staff collect the cash, follow the agents and they go to those villages and they are exchanging new notes for the old notes and we give a limit of 10,000.

‘’The reports I have received is that in fact most people have less than 10,000, there are only very few that have more than 10,000, maybe 15 or 20,000 and we have told the directors to use their discretion to grant those very few.

‘’So I don’t understand the relationship between our own cash swap which is our own job, which is our mandate, and the security issue being espoused by the Kano State Governor. So that is why I said I don’t want to be joined in any argument with him, I want to remain focused on our mandate and assignment.’’

In case you missed it

Recall that yesterday, Governor Ganduje, in a letter to President Buhari, asked him to postpone his planned visit to Kano state due to security concerns and complaints from locals about the difficulty in obtaining the new naira notes.

Buhari was scheduled to visit the state on January 30 and 31 to commission some projects executed by the Ganduje administration.

The governor was quoted as saying lawmakers from the state, political stakeholders and the business community agree with the decision to postpone the planned visit.

Ganduje also called for an extension of the deadline for returning old naira notes.

Meanwhile, the CBN, today (January 29, 2023) announced the extension of the deadline for replacing old naira notes from January 31st, 2023, to February 10, 2023, after approval by President Buhari.