The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ruled that the former Naira Notes of N200, N500 and N1000 have ceased to be legal money in Nigeria from the 10th of February, 2023.
The revelation was made by the Branch Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza while briefing Journalists on Monday at the CBN, branch in Bauchi.
He claimed that “In the past 24 hours, we have been overwhelmed with queries from all perspectives of the general public concerning our operating rules on the old currency notes, be that as it may, there are so many issues here and there which people have been asking about.”
According to him, “So for the avoidance of doubt, we desire to announce unequivocally that CBN is ready and is prepared to take all of those old notes depending on specific rules and criteria.”
“Customers are free to come to the Bank and deposit which they cannot do at the Commercial Banks longer since the money has ceased to be a legal tender from the 10th of this month.
Consequently, the management of the CBN resolved that those customers would have a sigh of relief by going to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the Federation including FCT to deposit their money.
“The consumer needs to go to the CBN site and complete a form in the portal, there will be a form there relating to this currency redesign and exchange.”
Andaza further added that “After finishing the form, you produce a code, you either print it or come with it on your mobile phone, give us the code and the information contained within. In the form, you are asked to submit all the essential information about yourself, your account details and the amount you wish to deposit.
By the time you have done it right, you come to the CBN where the code will be received from you as well as the money, process and authenticate the legitimacy or otherwise of the money to prevent getting fake notes since there are some false notes in circulation now.”
He cautioned that “If somebody wants to test us by bringing in fake notes, he should be ready to be detained, so don’t go and print old phoney naira notes and bring them to the CBN, whatever happens to you, don’t blame us, you created it.”
He however assured that “We will receive the money from you and do our internal checks before we give you an acknowledgement which is evidence to show that we have collected that amount from you and we go ahead with our internal processes, after finishing with the internal processes, we now hit your account and credit it through your Commercial bank.
All the commercial Banks are expected to…
“All the Commercial banks are expected to deliver all old notes deposited to us and we will collect, that is the final. Some of the Banks have started depositing with us because they want to close their books, as soon as they do that, they will not collect from customers again, that is the reason CBN decided to open this portal for the general public especially the vulnerable who are still having problems of cash used for trading and now that the deadline has expired, they need to deposit their money.
“The CBN is trying to minimize the risk involved in losing that money, we are trying to minimize hardship also, we know that people are having some hardship, people are suffering, we not unmindful of that fact, that why the management of the CBN has magnanimously decided to open that portal to assist those who were unable to deposit the money into their bank accounts, that is our process flow in a nutshell.
“The portal will be there, opened for some time, depending on the circumstances and the directives from the management, we expect that within this period, people should have been able to deposit all they have, it is a privilege given to Nigerians to ensure that they deposited that money even though they are no longer legal tender.
For People in Remote Areas
“For the people in the remote areas, if you can recollect, we have gone round virtually all the villages in Bauchi state with some commercial banks asking the people to open accounts which many of them did and were able to deposit their money, I doubt if there are still people who have not keyed into the system now who are still having old money.
“We utilized the media, NOA and Traditional rulers only to let the people know, no limit to the amount that may be deposited provided the form was fully completed.
“There are several firewalls that can safeguard the individuals using the site, no reason for alarm.”
In his remarks, CBN Team Lead, Bauwho is the Director, of Medical Services of the Apex Bank, Dr Abdulkadir Jibril explained that “It is a point we have made before, I just want to emphasize it, not everybody in Bauchi state is privileged to be at this meeting and so, there is the moral and professional responsibility on their shoulders to ensure that this information gets to every nook and cranny of the state and even beyond.”
He emphasized that “There is a limited time that has been given by the government and the law, just as I have emphasized earlier on, it is the magnanimity of the government, so, this is just an additional time and opportunity to assist people to get their monies into their bank accounts safely so that nobody misses a dime or loses any money.”
Jibrin continued adding, “I am calling to our people both men and women to convey or promote this message everywhere so that people may do the needful.”
