The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed deposit money banks not to pay customers who make over-the-counter withdrawals of fresh naira notes.
To guarantee that the money circulates across the country prior to the deadline of January 31, 2023, when the old notes will no longer be accepted as legal tender, the central bank instead instructed the banks to fill their Automated Teller Machines with exclusively new notes.
According to The PUNCH, the apex bank issued the directive to the banks on Wednesday and ordered that the implementation must begin immediately.
However, as of Friday, the banks had been unable to follow the instruction since they reported that there wasn’t enough of the new notes available, leading them to fill their ATMs with the old notes.
The CBN order which was obtained by The PUNCH on Thursday through a source in a Tier-1 bank, who also added that her lender had issued a memo to all branch managers on Thursday to enforce the CBN order.
The memo, which was titled., ‘Urgent update on currency redesign’ and signed by the Group Head, Retail Operation, stated, “The CBN has mandated that we immediately stop the Over-the-Counter payment of the new N200, N500 & N,1000 currency. Instead, all new notes should be loaded into the ATMs for customer withdrawals.
“This is effective immediately please.”
