Banks will begin issuing the newly designed naira notes to their customers through over-the-counter payments on Thursday (Today).
This came about three weeks after the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), unveiled the new bills at a weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Aso Rock Villa
The redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes were unveiled by the President.
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele had previously stated in October that the apex bank would issue newly designed naira notes by December 15, 2022.
He also stated that the old notes would no longer be considered legal tender on January 31, 2023.
Emefiele stated that redesigning naira notes would help to reduce counterfeit notes and ransom payments to terrorists and kidnappers.
The CBN governor expressed concern that Nigerians were hoarding 85 per cent of the total currency in circulation.
As a result, he stated that redesigning the local currency would help to mop up the currency outside the banking sector, adding that close to N2.75tn of the approximately N3.3tn in circulation were outside the banking sector.
Meanwhile, top commercial bank officials confirmed on Wednesday that they had received the new notes from the CBN a few days ago, and that the redesigned currency would be available to their customers on Thursday (today).
“We got the funds (new notes) about two days ago. Our head office has dispatched the funds to various area offices across the country. My branch will pick up our allocation at a nearby area office. We will start releasing the new notes to our customers by Thursday,” according to a top official of a commercial bank who spoke to one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity on Wednesday because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.
Several banking sources confirmed that the new notes had arrived and were being stored in vaults.
They confirmed that the new notes would be distributed to customers in banking halls starting Thursday.
