Banks still dispensing old Naira notes to be sanctioned- CBN

The Nigerian Central bank stated that any Bank still giving out old naira notes before the January 31^st deadline for the redesign policy would be sanctioned.

This was disclosed by Mr Godwin Emefiele, Governor of CBN, represented by Mr Atiku Mohammed-Nasir, CBN’s Director of Security Service, during a sensitisation campaign on the redesigned Naira notes in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

CBN warned Nigerians not to receive any old naira notes given to them by any bank in Nigeria.

Sanctions: The CBN Chief noted that any bank found guilty of dispensing the old Naira notes at ATMs would be sanctioned as it has supplied adequate notes.

• “Henceforth, When you go to any commercial bank and you are issued the old N200, N500 and N1,000 do not collect them because they would become useless as of Jan. 31.
• “We will henceforth sanction any bank found guilty of dispensing the old Naira notes at ATMs or over the counters to customers.
• “The CBN has supplied adequate new Naira notes to the various commercial banks. If any bank issues you old Naira notes, report such bank to the CBN for appropriate action”.

CBN also noted that there would be no extension of the Jan. 31 deadline for the termination of the old notes despite appeals for an extension by the traders and urged Nigerians to change their old paper currency before the deadline.

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CBN revealed earlier that it has asked banks to pick up the new naira notes and even waived some of the conditions for accessing the new banknotes.

The waiver: Governor 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.”