German embassy to stop accepting old banknotes from Nigerians 22 days before deadline
December 26,2022
The date posted is 22 days earlier than the 31st January deadline announced by Central Bank of Nigeria that the old notes will continue to be a legal tender.
CBN in a message to Nigerians had asked Nigerians to return all old 200, 500 and 1000 notes before the deadline as it won’t be extended
However, Ripples Nigeria’s findings revealed that commercial banks are rationing the new naira notes they have received from the CBN as many customers are keen to hold the redesigned notes.
Only a few customers that make over-the-counter withdrawals have been able to have a few of the new notes, while the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) which are used by most customers are still dispensing old notes
Aisha Ahmad, deputy governor in charge of financial system stability, said the CBN ordered the printing of only 500 million pieces of new naira notes in the first contract, which rolled out last week, December 15, 2022.
She also noted that Nigerians will have to do more with e-transactions as over time the circulation of N500 and N1000 notes will reduce
On the amount of deposits so far returned into the banking system since the directive was issued, Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor said: “The central bank has taken close to half a trillion. And with the banks, we also have close to about half a trillion. So what we have done in the central bank was to move more people from different departments into currency processing so that they can process this cash as quickly as possible
