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New naira: Why Borno can’t beat deadline – Zulum

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Borno State may not beat the January 31 deadline for the expiration of old naira notes.

The state governor, Babagana Zulum, had listed challenges he described as insurmountable for the end of the circulation of the old notes.

He was speaking in Maiduguri on Friday when a team of the Central Bank of Nigeria led by its Director of Statistics, Muhammad Tumala, paid him a courtesy call.

He said apart from the non-availability and circulation of the new notes, only three of the 27 Local government areas of the state – Maiduguri Metropolitan, Here and Biu – had functional banks due to insecurity which had rendered majority of the communities in the state inaccessible.

Zulum said the remaining 24 LGAs have been without banks for the past one decade, in addition to the lack of communication service due to destructions of telecommunication facilities and financial institutions by Boko Haram insurgents.

“Borno State Government is really in support of the CBN policy in redesigned new naira notes, as it will have a long run positive effect on Nigerians, but sincerely speaking, all the infrastructures needed to implement this new CBN’s policy are not in existence in many parts or communities of Borno,” Zulum stressed.

“If as governor, I do not possess the new naira notes currently, what of a poor person in the village or on the streets?,” he lamented.

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