[BREAKING] CBN Insists Old Naira Notes No Longer Legal Tender, Delists Old N‎200, ‎N500, N‎1000

….Shuns Supreme Court order

 

• threatens to arrest, jail PoS agents charging above N200 for cash swap

 

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said old naira notes of ₦‎200, ₦‎500, ₦‎1000 notes have ceased to be legal tender in the country since Friday, February 10, 2023.

 

To this end, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said that there was no need to shift the February 10, 2023 deadline.

 

He said this during a visit on Tuesday to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the monetary and currency redesign policy of the bank.

 

He said, “The situation is substantially calming down since the commencement of over-the-counter payments to complement ATM disbursements and the use of super-agents.

 

“There is, therefore, no need to consider any shift from the deadline of February 10.”

 

This comes as the Supreme Court earlier restrained the Federal Government from implementing the February 10 deadline for the currency swap.

 

A seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice John Okoro, in a unanimous ruling, granted an interim injunction restraining the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks from implementing the Friday terminal date for the old naira notes.

 

However, the CBN governor insisted that there was no need to shift the deadline.

 

He also said that Point of Sale agents who charge above N200 for the CBN cash swap programme will be arrested and jailed when caught.

 

The CBN governor further said that the PoS operators can come to the CBN to be compensated for any extra cost incurred in getting the new notes rather than charging a higher fee on customers.

 

Speaking in this same vein, CBN Branch Controller in Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza, while speaking to journalists disclosed; “In the last 24 hours, we have been inundated by questions from various angles of the general public about our operational guidelines on the old currency notes, be that as it may, there are so many questions here and there which people have been asking about,” Andaza said.

 

“So for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is opened to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria. Customers are free to come to the Bank and deposit which they cannot do at the Commercial Banks anymore because the currency has seized to be a legal tender since the 10th of this month.

 

“Consequently, the management of the CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the Federation including FCT to deposit their money.

 

“The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange. After filling out the form, you generate a code, you either print it or come with it on your mobile phone, give us the code and the information contained therein. In the form, you are expected to provide all the basic information about yourself, your account details and the amount you want to deposit.”

“By the time you have done it correctly, you come to the CBN where the code will be accepted from you as well as the money, process and confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the money to avoid receiving fake notes because there are some fake notes in circulation now.”

 

The CBN’s stance comes a week after three states – Kaduna, Zamfara, and Kogi State on Monday instituted a suit against the Federal Government at the Supreme Court over the scarcity of old and new Naira notes due to the CBN naira redesign policy.

 

The state governments said they are worried about the effects the CBN naira redesign policy is having on the residents of their states.

 

They asked the Supreme Court for a restraining order to compel the government and CBN from implementing the policy.

 

The Supreme Court thereafter issued an interim injunction restraining the Federal Government from suspending the acceptance of the old Naira notes on the Friday, February 10, 2023 deadline.