The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked commercial banks to start collecting old N500 and N1,000 Naira notes from the public.
CBN said this on Friday and said the directive is with immediate effect.
This is coming barely a day after President Muhammadu Buhari gave the apex bank a directive to return back old N200 naira notes back into circulation to ease the sufferings of Nigerians.
President Buhari gave made the directive known in a nationwide broadcast on Thursday.
According to him, the old N200 naira notes will remain legal tender until April 10th when it will cease to be legal tender.
READ ALSO: Breaking News: Confusion As CBN Denies Asking Banks To Collect Old N500, N1000 Naira Notes
Meanwhile, for days now, Nigerian banks stopped accepting the old N500 and N1000 naira notes following CBN’s order that the old notes had ceased being legal tender.
The CBN had given February 10th as deadline for every Nigerian to exchange their old naira with new ones.
However, majority of Nigerians did not exactly obey this directive as many Nigerians kept using the old naira for business transactions.
Meanwhile, this was further fueled by the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s order to the Federal Government to prevail on the CBN not to declare the old N500 and N1000 naira notes illegal legal tender.
ALSO READ: Breaking News: Buhari Directs CBN To Return N200, Says Old N500, N1000 Notes Not Legal Tender
READ ALSO: Checkout CBN’s Payment Card, AfriGo That Could Replace Mastercard, Visa
The apex court had adjourned the suit brought before it by five state governors who later became more than twelve state governors after other state governors joined the suit.
The governors are challenging the Federal Government and the CBN for declaring that the old N500 and N1000 naira notes are no legal tender.
Nigerians suffer scarcity, rejection of naira:
Meanwhile, as the tussle continues, Nigerians suffered more as they could not get either the new naira notes or the old ones.
Soon after too, the Point of Sale (POS) agents started making brisk business by selling naira to Nigerians at very high commission.
Some went as high as collecting N2000 for N10, 000.
Narrating his experience, popular singer, Paul of P-Square said he bought N40, 000 with N70, 000 to pay a visa fee.
Also, this naira scarcity has caused pains, hardship and other traumas to Nigerians.
Consequently, many took to the streets in Ibadan, Delta, Lagos and other states to protest and vandalise the scarcity of the naira.
Moreover, following President Buhari’s latest directives for the N200 naira notes to come back into circulation, the CBN has not only complied but has equally ordered banks to start accepting N500 and N1000 naira notes from the public who still had the old notes.
Processes before taking your old naira to bank:
A CBN source told the Punch that the CBN has ordered commercial banks to start collecting the old notes from the public withy immediate effect.
However, the source added that anybody taking their old notes to bank must first fill out a form on the CBN portal before approaching their respective banks to change their old naira notes.
“Go to your bank but fill out the form before you go. Go with the reference code you generate. With your code, banks will collect it from you. But if it is more than 500,000, you will go to the CBN and deposit it.”
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele Appeals To Nigerians To Accept Cashless Policy:
Meanwhile, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele had, on Thursday, appealed to Nigerians to endure the current sufferings occessioned by the naira scarcity and swap policy.
He spoke with State House Correspondents wherein he appealed to Nigerians to allow embrace the cashless policy and allow it to work.
According to him, the naira swap process is part of the cashless policy which will place Nigeria among global peers in digital banking growth.
He said thus:
“The truth is that we are all servants. We are serving Nigerians.
“As far as we are concerned the Attorney General has spoken on this matter and the President has sealed the whole issue this morning in his broadcast.
“I think I can only just appeal to Nigerians, let’s allow this policy to work.
“This policy is one policy that goes to reduce the problem of corruption and illicit financial flaws;
“This policy goes to resolve some of the problems in the economy; this policy also goes to reducing the level of insecurity in the country.
“So these three issues which are the tripod of this administration’s policy are all embedded in this policy. We should just allow it to work.
“We keep saying this, there are some temporary pains, but I can assure Nigerians that the long-run benefit to Nigeria is overwhelming and we should just give it a chance to work.”
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