Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has ruled out the prospect of extending the 10-day grace period for old Naira notes to stay in circulation.
He urged Nigerians to bear the pangs of problems in obtaining the freshly redesigned Naira notes from banking institutions.
The governor, who made the appeal during a news conference in Lagos on Friday, said the agony is just transitory and that money will be available soon.
He said the leadership of the apex bank had appealed to commercial banks to manage the situation properly while the cash circulates.
He said, “On the clamour by people to move the deadline by one more year or if we are open to further extension of the deadline. I would say no.
“I’m sure that people are going to say that only last week Tuesday, I said no, but I want to say unfortunately again, this time, we will not be looking at an extension of deadlines.
“We do see that there will be some transient or temporary pains. But I will appeal, we are begging, we are on our knees begging people to please show understanding they should be calm”.