CBN directs banks to collect old N500, N1,000 notes

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed Deposit Money Banks to  collect  old N500, and N1,000 notes from customers with reference code generated from its Currency Return Portal, CRP

Multiple bank sources stated that  branches received  directives from their head offices  some hours ago that they should collect the old notes from their customers who have enrolled and generated reference code from the CRP.

A top CBN official confirmed saying yes we have directed them to collect the old N500 and N1000 from customers, subject to a maximum of N500,000.

Recall that President Mohammadu Buhari directed that the old N500 and N1,000 notes are no longer legal tenders but those having the notes should take them to the CBN so as not to lose their money.

Consequently, the CBN opened  the CRP  for people with the old N500 and N1,000 notes to register how much they want to deposit and to get a reference code to confirm their registration. The reference code will be used to deposit the old notes at any of  the CBN offices across the country.

Investigation however revealed that the CBN might have allowed the banks to collect the old notes from their customers following the huge number of people that besieged its offices to deposit the old N500 and N1,000.

A too source of a bank said the branch will collect old notes from customers tomorrow, Saturday,  as the branch did not open to customers today due to fear of attack.

Further investigations however showed that some bank branches that had started collecting the old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers were suspended by midday citing inability to access the  CBN’ CRP for registration of old notes deposit.

Meanwhile, the ongoing scarcity of cash persisted yesterday as most banks were closed and most ATMs did not dispense cash.