Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said the apex bank has asked banks to pick up the new naira notes and even waived some of the conditions for accessing the new banknotes.
Emefiele disclosed this on Wednesday while being represented by the CBN Director of Legal Services Department, Mr. Kofo Salam-Alada, during a sensitisation tour on the redesigned naira notes at Computer Village, Ikeja in Lagos.
He explained that commercial banks were given slots before. But now, the CBN is bending over backwards to accommodate the banks’ demands.
The waiver: Emefiele revealed that the CBN approached banks to pick up new notes and waved conditions to accessing the redesigned currency. He said:
- “We have been calling upon the banks to approach the Central Bank of Nigeria across the country to come and pick up the new notes; we have even waived some of the conditionality for accessing currency notes to accommodate the banks.
- “The banks were being given slots before, but now the Central Bank of Nigeria is bending over backwards to accommodate the demands of the banks to service them so that they can service you and so that everybody will have access to the new naira notes.”
Monitoring ATMs: The CBN Governor also revealed that it is monitoring the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to ensure that they stopped paying customers the new naira notes over the counter but via the ATMs. He said:
- “Part of what we are doing is that we have monitors going around the banks now, I have been to some ATMs this morning and I’ve lodged a report and I’ve spoken to the management of the various banks.”
He added that penalties await any bank that fails to come and pick up the new notes. Also, failure to lodge money into their ATMs will attract fines.
He urged traders to call these numbers- 08176657641, 08176657642, 08176656721, 07080650791, and send messages to newnaira@cbn.gov.ng, should they have any problem accessing the new notes, as there is no going back on the January 31st deadline.
In case you missed it: The CBN said the newly redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 would help curtail inflation by bringing currency outside of the banking system into the banking system, thereby making monetary policy more effective in combating inflation.
- Other reasons cited included significant banknote hoarding, a scarcity of clean and fit banknotes, and the increasing ease with which banknotes could be counterfeited.
- Findings by Nairametrics Research have shown that old N1000 and N500 notes are still being dispensed by some banks’ ATMs.
- Meanwhile, the commercial banks have complained that the new naira notes are not enough to meet customers’ demands.
