*** Claims We’ve Been pleading with Banks To Pick Up New Naira Notes
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has said that they have been pleading with commercial banks to accept the new Naira notes.
The previous N200, N500, and N1000 notes will no longer be considered legal tender after January 31 according to the apex bank.
With fewer than two weeks to the deadline, there have been worries about this, though.
The CBN used several measures, such as prohibiting over-the-counter payment using the new notes, to control the scarcity.
The issue remained despite the top bank’s instructions to commercial banks to stock their ATMs with the new currency.
At a sensitization programme in Lagos, Kofo Salam-Alada, Head of legal department of the apex bank, said the CBN will go tough on banks that continue to fill their ATM machines with old naira notes as the deadline to phase out the notes nears.
He said, “I can tell you today that the CBN on a daily basis issues 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 naira notes 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 withdrawal of 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 in 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.”
