According to DAILY POST, Dr. Isa Abdulmumin, the acting director of corporate communication for the CBN, confirmed that there is no notification from the central bank ordering commercial banks to accept and distribute old N500 and N1000 notes from Nigerians.

Abdulmumin was responding to a statement made by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, who claimed that the apex bank has ordered commercial banks to accept and dispense outdated notes.

He said, “Governor Charles Soludo’s statement emanates from him, not the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Central Bank has not issued any statement directing banks on a collection of old naira notes. I am sure sometime in the future; the bank will issue a statement”.

The Supreme Court of Nigeria on March 3, 2023 delivered a judgment on the suit by three States (Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara) against the Federal Government of Nigeria, over the cashless policy implementation strategies.

The court ruled that old N1000, N500, N200 remain legal tenders till December 31, 2023.

Some days after the judgment, many businesses are still confused whether to accept the old naira notes or not as the CBN kept mute on the Supreme Court’s judgment.

Now, Professor Charles Soludo, former Governor of the Central Bank and the incumbent Governor of Anambra State, is reporting on his verified Facebook page that the “Commercial banks have been directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to dispense old currency notes and to also receive same as deposits from customers”.

“Tellers at the commercial banks are to generate the codes for deposits and there is no limit to the number of times an individual or company can make deposits.

“The Governor of the CBN gave the directive at a Bankers’ Committee meeting held on Sunday, 12th March, 2023.

“The Governor, Dr Godwin Emefiele, personally confirmed the above to me during a phone conversation on Sunday night.  Residents of Anambra are therefore advised to freely accept and transact their businesses with the old currency notes (N200; N500; and N1,000) as well as the new notes.

“Residents should report any bank that refuses to accept deposits of the old notes.  Anambra State Government will not only report such a bank to the CBN, but will also immediately shut down the defaulting branch”.

In a statement issued Friday evening, the Central Bank stated that the report was false and unauthorized.

According to CBN spokesman Osita Nwanisobi, the apex bank strictly adheres to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive, which allows the old N200 note to circulate alongside the new one for 60 days.

“The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to some fake and unauthorized messages quoting the CBN as having authorized the Deposit Money Banks to collect the old N500 and N1,000 Banknotes.

“For the avoidance of doubt, and in line with Mr. President’s broadcast of February 16, 2023, the CBN has been directed to ONLY re-issue and recirculates the old N200 banknotes and this is expected to circulate as legal tender for 60 days up to April 10, 2023.

“Members of the public should therefore disregard any message and/or information not formally released by the Central Bank of Nigeria on this subject.

“Media practitioners are advised to PLEASE verify any information from the correct sources before publication,” Nwanisobi stated.

See the tweet:

PRESS RELEASE pic.twitter.com/AXkUlDGjx7

— Central Bank of Nigeria (@cenbank) February 17, 2023

The Nigerian Senate had also appealed for an extension but the apex bank has underlined emphatically that the deadline would not be extended.

“There is a sufficient supply of the new notes for commercial bank ATMs,” according to Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, who was present in Jos through Musa Jimoh, Director of the Payment System Management Department of the bank.

He urged banks to stop withholding cash from ATMs.

”The CBN has massively supplied the new notes to commercial banks to dispense both at counters and ATMs.

”This is to enable quick circulation and we want to advise commercial banks to desist from keeping the cash away from the public or face the stiffer sanction.”

The CBN Governor claimed that the decision to redesign the currency was made by international standards. He added that currencies are supposed to be updated every five years, but Nigeria took nine years between redesigns.

To raise awareness about the employment of agents to circulate cash in underbanked communities, Emefiele noted that the Monitoring and Sensitization program was intended to address issues with cash circulation.

“The Monitoring and Sensitisation project was activated by the apex bank for investigation of the attitude of banks toward the spread of the new currencies.

”We are equally using it to create awareness on the use of agents to circulate the cash in communities with few or no bank branches available.”