…insists on January 31 deadline for old Naira notes
…dismisses N89trn Stamp Duty Claim
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 17.5 percent in its efforts to tame inflation.
The Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this, on Tuesday afternoon, at the end of the first 2023 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.
He said that although the effects of past policy decision were being felt in the reduction of the rate of inflation, the result was not yet good enough to hold or reduce the MPR.
Emefiele while briefing the media at the end of the meeting also informed that there is no going back on the January 31 deadline for old Naira notes.
He reiterated that there would be no extension of the January 31 deadline for the Naira redesign policy.
According to him, all those who had the old notes had enough time to take them to the bank or swap them for the new ones within the time frame.
“I must say that unfortunately, I don’t have good news for those who feel we should shift the deadline, my apologies,” Emefiele said.
“The reason is because 90 days (we feel it’s 100 days) should be enough for those who have the old currency (Naira notes) to deposit it to the banks.”
Mr. Emefiele also dismissed claims that CBN was holding N89 trillion Stamp Duty fund.
He explained that only N370. 386 billion had been collected through Deposit Money Banks since the policy became effective in 2016.
Meanwhile economic analysts are not in agreement with the MPC in the use of monetary policy alone in the fight to bring down inflation.
Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Eze Onyekpere said this increase may not be necessary this time around because there is so much monetary policy rate can do in terms of tackling inflation. He said there should be other methods of trying to bring down inflation and this will require proper economic policies and Fiscal governance as well as economic management beyond simply increasing the monetary policy rate at every meeting of the MPC.