...invites apex bank, operators to meeting on Wednesday
The House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to extend the deadline on its cashless policy by six months.
It said the policy, especially the January 31 deadline on the withdrawal of old N1000, N500 and N200 notes, would have harsh consequences on the majority of Nigerians in rural communities without access to modern banking facilities.
In a resolution the House passed in Abuja on Tuesday, it also observed that with seven days to the deadline, the new notes replacing the old ones were in short supply.
The resolution, which arose from a matter of urgent public importance moved by a member from Katsina State, Rep. Sada Soli, noted that most bank Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and Point of Sale (PoS) outlets still dispensed the old notes as they claimed not to have the new ones.
Tuesday's plenary, which was presided over by the Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, resolved to invite the CBN and bank CEOs to separate meetings with an ad hoc committee of the House at the National Assembly on Wednesday (tomorrow) to look into the matter.
The committee is chaired by the Leader of the House, Rep. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, and has 13 other members.
Rep. Soli, while defending his motion earlier, argued that the global best practice was that currency notes were "phased out" and not "forced out" by countries.
He explained that the reason was so the citizenry could bear the likely economic effects of the currency swap with ease.
