“USA moves to checkmate dollar stockpile in Africa,” reads the headline of a report by TheNewsNigeria The claim also appeared on Nairaland, a well-known social networking platform in Nigeria. The post claims that the government of the US “has set date for restriction on an acceptable legal tender note of US Dollar which will commence on Jan. 31st 2023”.
“The restriction implies that any US Dollar note below 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.
The claim is coming over a week after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the redesign of some naira notes including N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, which will be effective from mid-December 2022. According to Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank of Nigeria (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”.
