Nigeria’s About Turn on Currency Changeover

The Central Bank of Nigeria has halted its naira redesign programme, 10 days after the Supreme Court ruled that it hadn’t given sufficient notice to the public to exchange the old notes for new.

Despite the CBN’s assurances that there were enough new notes in circulation, there evidently weren’t – with shortages resulting from the transition from old banknotes to new leading to hardship, protests, violence and a hit to the economy. The digital banking network was also overwhelmed as a flood of transactions shifted to electronic payments.

The CBN had originally set 31 January as the final date by which all old notes (of the N200, 500 and 1,000) had to be exchanged. This was extended by the government to 10 February and then by a further 60 days, but, in a ruling in early March on a case brought by 16 Nigerian states, the Supreme Court extended it to 31 December 2023.