The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated it won’t extend the deadline for expiration of old naira notes.
It urged Nigerians not to wait till the January 31 deadline to turn in their old notes.
The CBN has announced the January 31 deadline for old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes won’t change.
Speaking in Ibadan during an advocacy visit on the new notes to the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun, the Controller CBN Ibadan branch, Olufolake Ogundero, said that cash deposits to banks between now and January 31th attract no charges, adding there is no limit to amount of old notes people can deposit.
According to her, all banks keep their Currency Processing Centres open from Monday to Saturday to collect cash deposits from their respective customers.
She said: “We have come here on the instructions of CBN Governor to sensitise the Olubadan, Olubadan-in-Council and people of the state about the 31st January deadline for the exchange of old Naira notes and also to tell them that the money is now available, they should go and deposit their old Naira notes because there will be no extension for the date.”
Ogundero said the new notes have the same security features as the old ones, saying CBN printed the old and new notes.
“In line with the global best practices, we should change our currency notes between five to eight years, we have had them for a long time, many people have been hoarding these old currency notes such that it has hampered our plan to know the amount of money in the economy, we have been recycling the old notes over and over again, so there is need to redesigned it to compete globally.
“We have disbursed these money to commercial banks and they have been mandated to put it in their ATM machines, we are trying our best to make sure that the money is available in the economy.”
The Otun Balogun Olubadan of Ibadanland, High Chief Tajudeen Ajibola, who spoke on behalf of Olubadan, lamented shortage in circulation of the new notes, saying CBN should do the needful to make them more available and accessible.
He implored CBN to increase cash withdrawal limit to accommodate more transaction among bank customers in the State.
