There have been multiple reports online that by January 31, 2023, any US dollar notes printed below 2021 will cease to be legal tender.
A report by the New Nigeria said, “USA moves to checkmate dollar stockpile in Africa.”
According to The Cable, Nairaland, a popular social networking platform in Nigeria also carried the news,
claiming that the US government “has set a date for restriction on an acceptable legal tender note of US Dollar which will commence on Jan. 31st, 2023”.
The post further said that “The restriction implies that any US Dollar note below the 2021 printed date will no longer be accepted or be a legal tender anywhere in the world… This effort is to curb billions of illegal monies in dollar bills warehoused around African continent emanating from drug-related, terrorism, kidnapping and money from corrupt politicians,” the post reads.
All Designs of U.S Currency Remain Legal Tender, Regardless Of When Issued.
According to checks made by The Cable on the official website of the US department of the treasury, the national finance and treasury office of the federal government, no such announcement was found.
Further checks by The Cable also showed that no reputable news media, both in the US and Nigeria, published reports on dollar redesign.
There are seven denominations of dollar notes, currently issued by the US Federal Reserve Board. The denominations include $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 notes.
The information available on the website of the US Currency Education Programme indicates that the current design of the $100 note, issued on October 8, 2013, is the latest denomination to be redesigned, while the $1 note, issued in 1963, featuring President George Washington has never been changed, The Cable stated.
US Currency Education Program.
The US Currency Education Programme is the body that provides education, training, and information about federal reserve notes. It emphasizes that “it is U.S. government policy that all designs of U.S currency remain legal tender, regardless of when they were issued”, stating that this policy includes “all denominations of federal reserve notes, from 1914 to the present”.
Periodically, the US government redesigns federal reserve notes to make them more difficult to counterfeit and easier to use, The Cable reports.
The claim that the US will reject old dollar notes from next year is coming more than a week after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that it has finalized arrangements for redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 naira notes to begin circulation on December 15, 2022, adding that," The new and existing currencies shall remain legal tender and circulate together until January 31, 2023, when the existing currencies shall cease to be legal tender," the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele announced.
Godwin Emefiele
Emefiele stated that in recent years, the CBN has noted much greater rates of counterfeiting, particularly at the higher denominations of N500 and N1,000 banknotes as a result of recent developments in photographic technology and printing devices that have made counterfeiting relatively easier.
He said, “Based on these trends, problems, and facts, and in line with Sections 19, Subsections a and b of the CBN Act 2007, the Management of the CBN sought and obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to redesign, produce, and circulate new series of banknotes at N200, N500, and N1,000 levels.
According to Emefiele, the CBN governor, one of the factors that influenced the redesign of the naira notes is the “significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public”, stating that statistics show that “over 80 percent of currency in circulation are outside the vaults of commercial banks”.
“As at the end of September 2022, available data at the CBN indicate that N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation, was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country; and supposedly held by the public,” he said.
Economy
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