As the rejection of old N500 and N1,000 notes continues, the Central Bank of Nigeria has directed commercial bank management to begin collecting the old notes from the public immediately.
Due to the poor circulation of the newly designed currency, some Nigerians who still have the old naira notes have taken over major cities across the country.
They complain about being unable to conduct daily transactions or even buy food because banks have begun implementing the CBN deadline for phasing out the new notes.
The apex bank had set up a portal on its website and required those who wanted to return old notes to fill out and generate a code
However, thet CBN has made a U-turn and ordered the banks to collect the monies.
A source in a commercial bank in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Friday told SaharaReporters that he was part of a virtual meeting held on Thursday night where they were told that the apex bank had directed that they could resume the collection of old naira notes from customers.
The banker said, “We didn’t go to the office on Thursday because of the unrest in Ibadan on Friday. However, we were asked to resume work on Friday morning. We had a virtual meeting on Thursday night where we were also told that the CBN had said banks should resume the collection of old naira notes.
“We were told that there would be designated banks that would handle it. First, you will generate a reference code online. Then with the code, you will go to the bank and fill out a form and the old notes will be collected from you. But I understand that it may take up to four weeks for the customer to get the money replaced. And I don’t know if the branch where I work will be one of the designated ones because we were told that there would be designated branches to handle it.”
The apex bank made a U-turn to reduce the number of people thronging their offices to swap the old notes for new ones, by decentralising the process.