The delivery of the New Naira notes to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) branches nationwide will start today.
At yesterday’s press conference for the Post-Monetary Policy Committee in Abuja, the Director of Currency Operations, Mr. Bello Umar, made this announcement.
The distribution to CBN branches across the nation would begin on Thursday, he stated, which is today. So that we have the notes all around the country when we are ready to launch, which could be at a later time.
The old notes will continue to be legal tender until January 31, 2023, at which point the new notes will start to circulate alongside them. This is expected to happen on December 15.
However, Mr. Umar stated that the apex bank was concerned that the anticipated rush to deposit outdated money has not yet taken place.
According to him, as of last Friday, just N165 billion had been deposited by banks with the CBN, and even those banks with sizable client bases had not done so.
Out of the N3.2 trillion in circulation, the CBN anticipates collecting around N2.7 trillion kept outside the banking system under the program.
The director claims that of the N3.2 trillion in circulation, “there was around N2.7 trillion outside the banking system when we designed this strategy. By Friday of last week, November 18, we had received a total of N165 billion in deposits from the banks. which nevertheless remains small.
“We don’t notice the rush. Some banks, even those with sizable customer bases, have not even made any deposits. In reality, the Inter-Agency Committee had to be informed of it yesterday by the Director of Banking Supervision.
“It is a problem for us and we are hoping that it does not result in a stampede when we are getting close to the end of January.”
The director said that the CBN had extended its work days to Saturday and that the bank’s branches were opened to receive deposits from banks.
He added that the apex bank has also waived charges and removed all limits in terms of the amount of money that a customer could deposit in his account, adding that there was no reason for anyone to be afraid to deposit their monies in their accounts.
