Nigeria's Supreme Court has temporarily suspended the deadline for the transition to new naira banknotes, the country's media report. Acceptance of the old 200, 500, and 1,000 naira notes was initially planned to end on February 10.
The decision came after a lawsuit was launched by the states of Kaduna, Zamfara, and Kogi against the federal government at the Supreme Court in order to compel the federal authorities and the CBN to stop implementing the transition – due to banknote scarcity and the difficulties that have arisen from it. The legal case has been adjourned until February 15.
The lack of currency in Nigerian banks led to long queues and protests as people tried to acquire new banknotes.
According to Aisha Dikko, the attorney general and commissioner for justice, Kaduna State, the naira redesign policy was launched as part of the federal government's efforts to transition to a cashless economy; however, cash is required for several types of transactions. She also underlined that people in rural areas, where the majority of the three states' population lives, do not have access to banks and are unable to deposit their savings, which are still mostly in old banknotes.
Against the backdrop of the naira reform, Nigeria has also seen growth in demand for alternative assets, such as for cryptocurrency, namely bitcoin. According to Google Trends, Nigeria is one of the nations most interested in cryptocurrency.
As part of its attempts to establish a cashless economy, in 2021, Nigeria became the first country in Africa to introduce a central bank digital currency – the eNaira. The country's government stated that the currency "serves as both a medium of exchange and a store of value, offering better payment prospects in retail transactions when compared to cash payments."
In November 2022, Nigeria's government announced that it would not include cryptocurrences in its plan to improve trading in digital assets due to high risks and a lack of standards for protection of investors.