The Supreme Court has granted the Federal Government's request to extend the life of the N200, N500, and N1000 notes, which were redesigned during President Muhammadu Buhari's administration.
A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice John Okoro, issued a ruling on Wednesday morning ordering that the old notes remain legal tender until the necessary facilities for their replacement are in place.
The old notes, the apex court ordered, ”shall co-exist as legal tender with the new or redesigned ones."
The ruling was on a motion by the Fed
Government, which was moved on Wednesday by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who was accompanied by the Acting Director, Civil Appeals, Federal Ministry of Justice, Tijani Gazali (SAN).
In its ruling, the
court reversed its earlier order that the old notes should cease to be legal tender by the end of December 2023 and instead issued an order that "the old versions of 200, 500, and 1000 naira notes/currency shall continue to be legal tenders alongside the new or designed versions until the government decides to discontinue circulation of the old versions after consultation with critical stakeholders and after putting all required strides in place."
Other members of the panel are Justices Uwani Aba-Aji, Helen Ogunwumiju, Ibrahim Saulawa, Adamu Jauro, Tijani Abubakar and Emmanuel Agim.
President Muhammadu Buhari launched the new. Naira banknotes on November 23, 2022. The President, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, expressed delight that the redesigned currencies are locally produced by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) PLC.
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