The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed Deposit Money Banks to collect old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers.
This implies that Nigerians can now deposit their old notes in banks contrary to taking them only to CBN offices.
According to Vanguard, a top CBN official confirmed the development, saying, “yes we have directed them to collect the old N500 and N1000 from customers.”
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that the old N500 and N1,000 notes are no longer legal tenders but those having the notes should take the notes to the CBN so as not to lose their money.
Consequently, the CBN opened a portal 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 there registration. The reference code will be used to deposit the old notes at any of the CBN offices across the country.
However, as thousands of Nigerians flooded CBN offices, the bank reportedly opted to allow banks to collect the old notes from their customers.
Vanguard quoted a top bank official and branch head to have said that his branch will collect old notes from customers tomorrow, Saturday, as the branch did not open to customers today, Friday, due to fear of attack.