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AfricaAFRICA NEWSBanking, Finance & InvestmentBusinessNigeria

Emefiele writes Reps over briefing on Cash Withdrawal Limits

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has again written to the House of Representatives, informing it of his unavailability to brief them on the new withdrawal policy of the bank.

The CBN, in a letter by Deputy Governor Corporate Services Directorate, Edward Adamu, addressed to the clerk of the House, Yahaya Tanzania, said Mr Emefiele is currently on official assignment abroad, hence, he is unable to honour the invitation of the House.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila read the letter during plenary on Tuesday.

Mr Emefiele was billed to appear before the lower chamber on Tuesday. “Regrettably, the governor is unavailable to brief the House of Representatives at this time, because he has other scheduled official engagements he is currently addressing abroad.

“Accordingly, he has requested that we respectively convey his inability to honour this invitation on the rescheduled date. The governor regrets this and will contact the House of Representatives as soon as he returns to the country from his official assignment,” the letter reads in part.

Background
The lawmakers had two weeks ago summoned Mr Emefiele to brief them on the new withdrawal policy. This was a sequel to a motion of a matter of urgent public importance moved by Aliyu Magaji (APC Jigawa) during plenary.

Mr Emefiele’s appearance was, however, rescheduled after a letter from the CBN, informing the House that he was in Washington DC as part of the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The CBN governor was to appear to explain what informed the introduction of the policy and other issues around it.

In a memo signed by the Director of Banking Supervision, Haruna Mustafa, two weeks ago, the apex bank directed all banks and other financial institutions to ensure that over-the-counter cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate entities do not exceed N100, 000 and N500, 000, respectively, per week.

In the new development, CBN directed that only N200 and lower denominations should be loaded into banks’ ATM machines.

The lawmakers then resolved that the CBN should halt the implementation of the policy until the probe is concluded.

Emefiele must appear on Thursday, to resolve

Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), speaking on the letter by the CBN, said Mr Emefiele must respect the institution of the National Assembly.

He added that though he is not against the policy, the CBN governor must respect the lawmakers as representatives of the people.

“For me, I am not against any policy but I am against disrespect to you (Speaker) and the Nigerian people—to the House. The speaker is a symbol of the Nigerian people. We have names to protect. I wish to say that the house must be mindful of the perception we are giving out. We will not tolerate further excuses,” he said.

Reacting to the position of Mr Gagdi, the Speaker said the matter has nothing to do with respect, but rather the need to obey statutory provisions of the CBN Act and the 1999 constitution.

He said the CBN governor must appear on Thursday to brief the lawmakers on the policy.

Mr Gbajabiamila also questioned the reason the CBN governor stayed out of the country for two weeks despite the critical situation of the country.

He ruled that the CBN must appear or in the alternative a deputy governor of the Bank represent him.

“I don’t want to see it as disrespect at all. I don’t think you (Mr Emefiele) can be out of the country for so long. My suggestion would be that we invite…let us agree.

“What is important is that this House gets a proper full briefing, and I think it behoves the CBN governor, in accordance with the law, to brief this House.

“We will be requesting what that official assignment is that will keep the CBN governor away for almost two weeks. I will like to know the official assignment —at this critical point that will keep him away for two weeks…because this House will more than likely close on Thursday,” he said.

Mr Gbajabiamila consequently ruled that Mr Emefiele must appear before the House on Thursday or in the alternative a deputy governor that is knowledgeable about the matter should appear in his place.

SOURCE: Premium times

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Banking, Finance & InvestmentNigeriaWestern Africa

What You Should Know About Nigeria’s New Naira Notes

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

The Central Bank of Nigeria on the 26th of October, 2022 announced its intentions of redesigning Naira notes consisting of the ₦200,₦500 and ₦1,000 respectively

An announcement which was made by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who also indicated that the Naira notes will begin circulation from the 15thb of December 2022 which will be used with the existing notes until it’s deadline which as fixed for 31st of January 2023 by the CBN.

The new development has sparked a few questions like why now? What does this mean for the country’s economy?, What does this mean for entrepreneurs?

As indicated by CBN, there has been an increase in hoarding of naira notes which also implies that there’s a huge amount of people are holding on to money without spending it.

There are also reports according to CBN indicating that N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation, was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country which is supposedly held by the public.

Other concerns have necessitating the redesign of the naira notes include

Shortage of clean and fit naira notes

According to CBN, there’s a shortage of clean naira notes in circulation which has led to the increase in counterfeiting especially the N500 and N1,000 notes.

Naira notes has not been designed in a long time

For over 20 years, Naira notes have not been redesigned which goes against the global best practices that require the redesigning of National currencies every 5 to 8 years.

What you should know

The said New Naira notes will be circulation from December 15, 2022. In order to create room for circulation, the legal tender would be acceptable as a means of exchange for the purchase of goods and services. Old legal tender can be paid into your bank accounts immediately bearing in mind that the deadline for the return of Naira notes will begin from 31st of January 2023 while the new naira notes will only be issued from 15th of December.

There are also indications that bank charges for cash deposits would be suspended effective immediately which means deposit transactions would be done without bank charges to aid circulation

If you are a business owner , it is important to be at alert and keep an eye out for fraudsters intentions of making bulk purchases with fake currency. make sure to inspect the said notes before accepting to sell. for entrepreneurs with businesses in rural areas that are far from banks, it is important to make cash deposits much earlier in order to beat the long queue accompanied with the deadline.

It is also advised to priotize the use of digital channels for transactions and payments instead of holding on to lots of cash which would need to changed in the long run.

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AfricaAFRICA NEWSBanking, Finance & InvestmentBusinessEconomyFinance & ServicesNewsNigeriaWestern Africa

eNaira app downloads hit 905,588

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that the eNaira application has so far recorded a total of 905,588 downloads.

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, revealed this on Tuesday in Abuja after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

“So far 905,588 downloaded the app, out of it 282,600 are currently active. So far, accounts of transactions have exceeded 1.49 million worth over N3.484 billion and the breakdown is that 78,115 consumers to bank worth about N1 billion and bank to customer of 90,760 transactions worth N945 million,” he said.

“Consumer to consumer transactions are what they bought value number of 35,800 worth about N480 million and consumer to merchant between 171,000 transactions worth over N387 million. “We have seen downloads 13,136 wallets have so far been created via the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channel that was the channel we recently introduced about three-four weeks ago and we are happy that progress is being made in that regard.

“For e-commerce, we have seen like 9.946 percent increase between July and September and this remains very encouraging. We believe the eNaira is an alternative to you holding an analogue naira and so it is very convenient.

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AfricaAFRICA NEWSBanking, Finance & InvestmentBusinessNewsNigeriaTechnologyWestern Africa

CBN set to introduce USSD code for eNaira as transactions hit N4bn

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it will roll out the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) code for eNaira next week.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, revealed this on Thursday at the eNaira hackathon organised by the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) and the apex bank in Abuja.

The CBN governor also announced that between October 2021 when it was launched and now, the eNaira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets. The volume and value of transactions on the platform have been remarkable, reaching above 200,000 and N4 billion, respectively.

Emefiele said CBN had concluded the first phase of the eNaira focusing on banks to users and progressed to the second phase of financial inclusion.

For the second phase, the CBN governor disclosed that the eNaira wallet would be made available to the general public by next week simply by dialing USSD code *997#.

“To achieve this set of objectives of the eNaira, the project adopted a phased approach with the first phase focusing on banks to users, while the policy objective of the second phase borders around financial inclusion,” he said.

“The second phase of the project has started, and it is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding the unbanked and on the soft users leveraging offline channels. 

ALSO READ: Cashless Economy: Cheque transactions in Nigeria fall 12% to N240bn

“Phase two is expected to deliver more gains with a target of about 8 million active users based on estimations using the diffusion of innovation model. Accordingly, we promised to increase the level of financial inclusion in the country because, just like the naira, the eNaira is expected to be accessible to all Nigerians, and I would provide more possibilities to bring the unbanked into the digital economy. 

“I am pleased and delighted to inform you all today that by next week, Nigerians, both banked and unbanked, will be able to open an eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialling *997# from their mobile phones.”

“Shortly after this, both merchants and consumers with bank accounts can use the NIBSS instant payment (NIP) to transfer and receive eNaira to any bank account of their choice. This will further deepen the integration of the naira with the assist in national payments infrastructure.”

In June, CBN said the introduction of the USSD code will improve the adoption of the eNaira.

Source: Leadership

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AfricaBanking, Finance & InvestmentBusinessNewsNigeriaWestern Africa

CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele gets summoned by senate over Naira depreciation

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been summoned by senate over the constant depreciation of the naira.

Reports revealed a United States dollar is exchanged to N658 in a parallel market on Wednesday.

The depreciation of the currency fuelled the lawmakers’ decision to invite the CBN governor following a motion by Olubunmi Adetunmbi, senator representing Ekiti north.

Contributing to the debate, Sani Musa, senator representing Niger east, said the naira would appreciate only if the country become a productive one.

“Let’s eat what we have; let’s do with what we have. Naira will continue to appreciate until we start manufacturing,” Musa said.

On her part, Biodun Olujimi, senator representing Ekiti south, accused the CBN of not taking responsibility which has led to the crash of naira.

ALSO READ: Naira Crashes to N710 per dollar

“Someone should be able to say I have failed, and that is the CBN,” Olujimi said.

“Most of what is happening is because people are taking out the dollar and selling and bringing them back in — we should be penalising somebody for what has happened to the naira-dollar rate.”

“The time has come for us to look holistically into what is happening. What is happening to the dollar is a replica of what is happening to Nigeria.”

The Red Chamber asked the apex bank to stop the express deterioration of the value of the naira.

Source: Vanguard

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