The Central Bank of Nigeria says mopped-up old notes will be released to commercial banks today (Thursday). OduNews reports.
At the height of pressure from various stakeholders for the CBN to relax its stance on the cashless policy to ease Nigerians’ pains, CBN governor Godwin Emefiele had claimed that all the old notes withdrawn from circulation had been destroyed.
And despite the Supreme Court judgement that directed the old and new notes be used together up till December 31, the money in circulation remained scanty as Nigerians struggled to live a normal life.
Sources at the CBN disclosed last night that the commercial banks were free to withdraw the old notes they kept at the apex bank.
“The CBN said banks have been instructed to collect the old naira notes they deposited and that before the end of the week, the country would be awash with naira notes,” he said.
This latest move and instruction from the apex bank came hours after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) directed all workers to picket all branch offices of the CBN nationwide starting next week over the current naira scarcity in the country.
Also, it was learnt the CBN would start by releasing crisp old notes to DMBS after which the ones deposited by commercial banks will also be released.
Furthermore, the CBN stated at the meeting that bank customers would no longer be required to generate any code before depositing their old notes.
One of the bank CEOs at the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The CBN governor met with bank CEOs this evening virtually. It was a short meeting that lasted for just about 15 minutes. The governor said all old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes will be released to commercial banks beginning from Thursday. The CBN will start with crisp old notes after which the ones deposited by DMBs will be returned. The plan is to flood the economy with cash and ameliorate the challenges Nigerians have been passing through.“
The top bank chief added, “Also, the CBN will be cancelling cash withdrawal limits it put in place recently. This means that individuals can now withdraw up to N500,000 across the counter while corporate bodies can do N5m. The CBN is expected to release a circular to this effect later tonight or tomorrow morning (today). But effectively, things should be back to normal as far the cashless policy is concerned.”
