The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has insisted that it would not be extending the January 31st deadline for the deposit of old naira notes (N200, N500 and N1000).

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who stated this today while fielding questions from journalists after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting, in Abuja reiterated President Muhammadu Buhari’s stance that the 100-day window is adequate time for Nigerians to deposit their old notes at the banks in exchange for new notes.

Our Correspondent, Raliat Adenekan reports that Mr Emefiele also said that new currency notes are available for pick up, restating CBN’s mandate for Banks to upload more of the new currencies in their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

Reading the communique from the monetary policy committee meeting, Mr Emefiele disclosed that the MPC raised the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 17.5 %, maintained the asymmetric corridor at +100 /- 700 basis points around the MPR, while it retained CRR at 32.5% and liquidity ratio is kept at 30%.