CBN Bans Withdrawal Of New Naira Notes

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has ordered Deposit Money Banks not to pay customers making over-the-counter withdrawals of new naira notes again.

Instead, the apex bank directed the banks to load their Automated Teller Machines with only new notes to ensure that the currency circulates across the nation ahead of the January 31, 2023 deadline when the old notes will no longer be legal tender.

According to reports, the apex bank issued the directive to the banks on Wednesday and ordered that the implementation must begin immediately.

However, as of Friday, the banks had not been able to comply with the directive as they complained of an inadequate supply of the new notes, prompting them to load their ATMs with the old notes.

The memo, which was titled., ‘Urgent update on currency redesign’ and signed by the Group Head, Retail Operation, stated, “The CBN has mandated that we immediately stop the Over-the-Counter payment of the new N200, N500 & N,1000 currency. Instead, all new notes should be loaded into the ATMs for customer withdrawals.

“This is effective immediately please.”

 

CBN Bans Withdrawal Of New Naira Notes

 

It was gathered that a source, who is a manager in one of the bank’s branches in Ikeja, Lagos, however, complained that the new notes were in short supply, hence the branch decided to load a mixture of the old and new N1,000 and N500 notes in the ATMs for customers to withdraw.

The source stated, “We got a memo from the head office this morning (Thursday) that we should stop dispensing new notes to customers who come to withdraw over the counter, but instead we should load the ATMs with the new notes. The correspondence from the head office said the directive was from the CBN and that we should implement it immediately.

“The directive has, however, thrown us into a dilemma as we are in short supply of the new notes and we can’t afford not to load the ATMs as there has been a surge in the number of customers coming to withdraw after the Yuletide holidays.

“Loading of ATMs is the responsibility of the banks. When our bank tested the ATMs, only one denomination of the new notes passed the test of dispensing seamlessly through our machines.

The bank is working on reconfiguring the ATMs to be able to dispense the new notes. What we have done in my branch is to mix the few new N1,000 and N500 notes available with old ones so that desperate customers can make withdrawals and meet their immediate needs.

“If you observed, a lot of ATMs were inactive during the Christmas and New Year holidays. The idea was not to give out old notes, but unfortunately, the new ones are not in circulation.

The banks have a mandate to evacuate N1bn old notes each to the CBN on a daily basis and our head office has set a strict vault limit or cash holding limit for each branch, which on no condition we must exceed.”

Also, a source in the corporate affairs department of a new generation bank said; “Even before the CBN directive, our bank had been loading the ATMs with new notes.

However, I must admit that the new notes are in short supply. What we do is to mix them up with old notes.

For example, if you want to withdraw N10,000, you may get only two pieces of new N1,000. Some of our ATMs in the Oniru area of Victoria Island, Lagos, are dispensing only new notes.

“The configuration of the ATMs is an ongoing thing; yes, all the ATMs have not been fully configured. There are gaps from the regulator, which is the CBN, but we will obey the directive within the limit of what we have. Customers are depositing old notes in huge volumes. The CBN has stopped the supply of the notes that will soon cease to be legal tenders to the banks.

“I am sure that before January 31, the new notes would have spread to different parts of the country.

Though I work in a bank, I have not seen the new N200; I have only seen N500 at a party in Abeokuta and it was being sold as your paper rightly reported a few weeks back.”

BY IYABO AINA

Publisher News Rain Nigeria