Report: Banks begin collection of old naira notes despite CBN’s denial of directive

Deposit Money Banks on Saturday opened their branches to customers for the purpose of collecting old N500 and N1,000 notes for deposit into their accounts, Punch reports.

This was contrary to the claim by the Central Bank of Nigeria that it did not instruct the banks to continue to collect the old notes from depositors.

Media report that the CBN had ordered banks to start collecting the old N500 and N1,000 notes from members of the public and pegged the maximum amount they could collect from individuals at N500,000.

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The CBN swiftly issued a counter statement signed by the Director, of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, saying it did not give such a directive.

The banking regulator stated, “The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to some fake and unauthorised messages quoting the CBN as having authorised the Deposit Money Banks to collect the old N500 and N1,000 banknotes.

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“For the avoidance of doubt, and in line with Mr President’s broadcast of February 16, 2023, the CBN has been directed to only reissue and re-circulate the old N200 banknotes and this is expected to circulate as legal tender for 60 days up to April 10, 2023.”

When one of our correspondents visited Access Bank in Oregun, Lagos, the branch was attending to customers who had succeeded in filling the required form from the CBN portal, and collecting the old N500 and N1,000 from them.

The CBN had opened a portal on its website and mandated all those willing to return their old notes to fill out a form and generate a reference code.

The Puch further reports that an official at the Access Bank branch explained, “We are only collecting deposits of the old notes from those who have filled the form and generated the code. If you don’t have a code, you cannot enter because you will not be attended to. We have been open since 10am and will close by 2pm.”

When asked how many times a customer could come and deposit, he said, “You are required to bring all the deposits at once and it must not be more than N500,000.

“If it is more than N500,000, you have to take it to the CBN and we can collect it only once from you because the deposit will be linked to your BVN.”

At Zenith Bank on Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA, customers also came to deposit their old N500 and N1,000 notes before the bank closed by 2pm.

A security guard said, “If you don’t have a reference code, you cannot enter.”

He explained how to generate the reference code saying, “You have to go to the CBN website to register on the portal. Some people don’t know how to do it, but they have been going to cybercafés to generate the code. That is when you can deposit and it must not be more than N500,000.”