There are no banks in 24 LGAs in Kano State – Ganduje

Few hours after President Muhammadu Buhari permitted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the deadline for the exchange of old naira notes by 10 days, Kano State governor, Umar Ganduje, on Sunday, applauded the move, adding that it will reduce hardships in the state, where 24 out of 44 local governments do not have banks.

The apex bank had in a statement on Sunday, stated that the bank has extended the deadline from January 31 to February 10, 2023, to allow collection of old notes, according to Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor,

Ganduje stated this when he led a delegation of critical stakeholders from the state to meet with President Buhari in his country home in Daura, Katsina State on Sunday.

He also used the opportunity to ask the president to go ahead with the planned state visit for Monday, which he earlier asked the president to postpone over “hardships caused by the shortage of the new notes in the state”

Speaking with State House journalists after meeting with the president, Ganduje said Kano State being comparatively a rural state, “still have 24 local governments without banks, adding that “most of the banks are concentrated within Kano metropolitan”

Read also: Tinubu explains role in deadline extension of old naira notes

This came barely 24 hours after he advised the president against coming to Kano on a scheduled state visit. He said the state is now prepared to receive Buhari.

Ganduje said: “We are very much ready to receive him and we have a lot for him to commission, including federal and state projects. There are state-of-the-art projects,” he said, when asked whether the state was prepared to host Buhari on Monday.

Ganduje, had in an interactive session with critical stakeholders, including scholars, legislators, political leaders and business community in the state, revealed that his government had requested the president to postpone the trip, saying that the state was deeply concerned about the hardship principally induced by the ongoing cash swap from old to redesigned notes. He said the decision was taken to avoid any unforeseen circumstance.

Consequently, the state government wrote a letter to the president outlining the reasons why the planned visit was no longer auspicious at this time.

A statement by the governor’s spokesman Abba Anwar, had noted that “Deeply concerned with the hardship caused by limited time given for halting use of old naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and for security reasons, the Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje resolved and wrote to presidency that, the visit of the president to commission some projects be postponed.

The president is also expected to visit Jigawa state on Tuesday to commission projects executed in the state and move to Kebbi on Wednesday for the same purpose before returning to Abuja.