The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has urged the public to deposit cash holdings in the denomination of N200, N500 and N1000 notes into their respective commercial banks before Jan. 31.
Mr Godwin Okafor, the Branch Controller, CBN, Asaba branch gave the advice on Thursday during the Apex bank’s visit to the Main market, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta.
The visit was to sensitise the stakeholders including traders on the currency redesign by the Federal Government.
Okafor who was represented by Mr Sunny Daibo said that the current currency being withdrawn in circulation would ceased to be a legal tender after Jan. 31 hence the need for them to deposit before the expiration date.
He urged the people to embrace the new currency notes saying that it had numerous benefits to the nation’s economy.
“This policy will help to control inflation as the exercise will bring the hoarded currency into the banking system thereby making money policy more effective.
“It will help in increasing financial inclusion, moving toward a more cashless economy and ensuring greater formalisation of the Nigeria economy.
“It will also help in the design and implementation of the Monetary Policy as well as fight against corruption in the movement of higher denomination from the banking system.
“The redesigned currency has greater durability, attractiveness and rich heritage,” he said.
The branch controller urged the public to deposit the currency adding that there was no limit to how much a customer could deposit between now and Jan. 31.
He also advised the people to accept, use and respect the redesigned currency while exploring other payment channels such as eNaira, USSD, electronic transfer among others.
Okafor said that currency management in Nigeria had faced some challenges in recent time with attendance consequence on the integrity of the Apex bank.
He said that statistics showed that about N2.72 trillion out of the N3.26 trillion currency in circulation as at June 2022 was outside the Vault of the commercial banks across the country.
“They are supposedly held by members of the public,” he said.
Okafor explained that the global best practices was for the central banks to redesign, produce and circulate new local legal tender between five and eight years adding that CBN had not redesigned Naira notes for almost 19 years.
“It was on the basis of this trends, problems, facts and benefits and in line with the CBN Act 2007 that it sought the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to redesign, produced and circulate the N200, N500 and N1000 notes,” he said.
Speaking with newsmen on the sideline, Daibo who led the Apex bank team to Warri said that they had visited some banks Automated Teller Machines to accertain if they were dispensing the redesigned currency.
“The banks said that they are yet to fill their ATM with the redesigned currency. They said that they will start doing it by Monday.
“When people get to the banks, they should insist on collecting the new notes. They should not collect the old notes again,” Daibo advised.