The old N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes in Nigeria will continue to be in use beyond December 31, 2023, the Supreme Court in Abuja ruled on Wednesday (today). The court quashed an order it gave in March that pegged the deadline for the validity of the old naira notes by the end of the year.
The court’s judgment was in favor of the Nigerian government which last week asked the apex court to scrap the initial timeframe. “To effectively stabilize the economy, the federal government is of the strong view that the old versions of N200, N500 and N1000 notes should continue to be legal tender alongside the new versions,” Lateef Fagbemi, the country’s attorney-general, argued in an application.
The Supreme Court mandated the government of Nigeria to stall the shift to new naira banknotes until all bottlenecks in the transitioning process are eliminated. The Central Bank of Nigeria earlier asked Nigerians to keep using and accepting both the old and new banknotes, TruthNigeria reports.
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
