The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ordered commercial banks in the country to stop paying customers the newly redesigned naira notes over the counter.

The CBN, however, directed the banks to load their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) with only new naira notes.

It was gathered that the apex bank gave the directive via a memo to the banks on Wednesday to ensure the circulation of the new denominations across the country ahead of the January 31, 2023 deadline when the old naira notes will no longer be legal tender in Nigeria.

The Star recalls that the CBN, on October 26, 2022, announced plans to redesign three naira notes out of the existing eight banknotes.

These are the N200, N500, and N1,000 denominations which took effect on Thursday, December 15 after its launch by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The apex bank said the new and existing currencies shall remain legal tender and circulated together until January 31 when the existing money will cease to be legal tender in the country.

However, the CBN, in a memo titled ‘Urgent update on currency redesign’ and signed by the Group Head, Retail Operation, read: “The CBN has mandated that we immediately stop the over-the-counter payment of the new N200, N500, and N,1000 currency. Instead, all new notes should be loaded into the ATMs for customer withdrawals.

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“This is effective immediately please.”

Speaking on the development, a source in a Tier-1 bank, said her lender on Thursday issued a memo in that respect to all the branch managers to enforce the CBN order.

The source, who is a manager in one of the bank’s branches in Ikeja, Lagos State, 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.

“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,” the source told PUNCH.

Meanwhile, the CBN spokesman, Osita Nwanisobi, has yet to speak on the development as of the time of filing this report.

The Star