CBN ask Nigerians to reject old naira notes from banks; insists on January 31 deadline for exiting old notes

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has advised Nigerians to start rejecting old naira notes from banks.

The apex bank further reminded bank customers that the old notes ceased to be a legal currency on January 31 and there were no plans to extend the deadline. Rekiyat Yusuf, Deputy Director, Currency Operations, made the announcement in Lokoja, Kogi State, on Thursday, during a presentation to market participants regarding the new naira notes. She stated that any bank found issuing outdated notes to customers will face appropriate sanctions in the future.

The CBN, therefore, directed customers to report any bank still dispensing old notes either over the counter or through the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to the apex bank.

Yusuf further urged traders to avail themselves of the window provided by the January 31st deadline by visiting banks to exchange the old notes with the new ones.

It maintains there are enough new notes to go around and urged citizens to report banks dispensing old notes via ATMs.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday continued with its nationwide sensitisation and public enlightenment exercise on its naira redesign project as the January 31, 2023 deadline for the retirement of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 nears.

It also stressed that it has enough new banknotes to go around. It urged Nigerians to report banks that don’t dispense new notes on their Automated Teller Machines (ATM).

It reiterated that it would begin to sanction banks that fail to comply with its directive.

He emphasised that the January 31, 2023 deadline remains sacrosanct, adding that the central bank was continuously monitoring activities across Nigeria to ensure compliance.

Salam-Alada, while noting that he had gone around to some ATMs in Lagos and discovered that some were still dispensing old notes, said the apex bank would soon announce sanctions for banks that failed to comply with the directive to load and dispense the new notes through their ATMs.

“I can tell you today that the CBN on daily basis issues out the new notes. As we speak, banks are with the CBN taking money. We are actually begging banks to come and take money from the central bank. We have these new nairas in our vaults and we are begging banks to come and take it.

“We found out that a lot of things are happening that we need to checkmate, so we stopped withdrawals of the new notes over the counter to ensure that everyone can have access to it and not one chief who is known to the manager walks in and carts away all the new notes in a particular branch. That is why we said it should be at the ATMs which cannot distinguish people.

“We also have monitors going around banks now. I have been to some ATMs this morning and i have done the reports. We are not mobilising the masses against the banks, because the banks are there to serve you, but be rest assured that they will serve you now that they know that the CBN is on them to serve you with the new naira notes.

“What we are experiencing now will actually ease up very soon, because the banks now know that there will be a penalty for failure to come and pick money from the CBN and failure to dispense through the ATM. Tell your members that if they have problems accessing the new naira notes, they can call the CBN to report,” he stated.