Old Naira Notes: Reps C’ttee Meets CBN, Bank Chiefs Today

The ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives constituted to interface with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the chief executive officers (CEOs) on the January 31 deadline for the withdrawal of old naira notes will commence its assignment today.

The committee during its inaugural meeting yesterday explained that  late delivery of invitation letters to the invitees stalled the meeting.

The chairman of the committee and majority leader of the House, Hon Ado Adoguwa made the disclosure to his colleagues one hour after they had gathered for the meeting.

According to Doguwa, the committee that they had scheduled to meet with the CBN officials yesterday (Wednesday) and take the bank CEOs today (Thursday).

He, however, said that a communication received from the CBN liaison officer said due to the late arrival of the letter, the bureaucracy could not work on it.

Doguwa, therefore, said the meeting with the apex had been rescheduled for Thursday by 1pm, adding that they would meet with the bank executives.

“This is the House Ad-hoc Committee to interface with the CBN and the bank operators with regards to resolving the issue of the phasing out strategy of the old naira notes and to bring into circulation the new naira notes among other reasons.

“We also have other factors that we have discussed on the floor of the House yesterday and ultimately the House mandated this Ad-hoc Committee to come up with a strategy to engage the officials of the CBN and CEOs of the commercial banks. It is therefore my pleasure to inform members of the committee, first of all, that we scheduled today’s meeting based on the letter we have signed out only with officials of the CBN and we have scheduled bank operators to come up tomorrow.

“So, it is like we ab initio invited them separately based on the nature of the engagement. It is a fact-finding thing and like I always say, this is not something to witch hunt anyone. It is a simple fact-finding mission by the parliament which obviously holds the proxy of the Nigerian people. So, we decided to take them separately.

“We have scheduled today for the officials of the CBN and tomorrow for the bank operators and CEOs of commercial banks and on that note, I would like to communicate with members of the public that based on communication I just received from CBN, it is that our letter of invitation got to the bank very late yesterday.

“You can all agree with me that the resolution was taken at the end of our sitting yesterday, 24th January 2023 and before we could finish necessary procedures, the letters were sent to the CBN late. So, the liaison officer of the bank spoke to us this evening that they were not able to really act on the letter to allow for their engagement today.

“On this note, I would like to convey to this committee and members of the public and the press here with us that we have conceded to allow the CBN officials to come tomorrow by 1pm so that we would engage them and immediately after the engagement with them we would engage the bank operators,” he said.

Doguwa also warned the banks against boycotting the meeting, emphasizing that the summons of the House must be taken very seriously.

The chairman added that no unpopular policies hampering the economy of the country and affecting the people negatively will be allowed to sail through.