The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has finally directed commercial banks to dispense the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes as well as receive the same deposits from customers.
This was confirmed on Monday morning by Governor Soludo through a statement issued on his official Twitter account and seen by Nairametrics.
The directive was given at Bankers; Committee meeting
Soludo in the statement titled, ‘Special Public Announcement’, said that tellers at commercial banks are to generate the codes for deposits adding that there is no limit to the number of times an individual or company can make deposits.
The governor revealed that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, gave the directive at a Bankers’ Committee meeting held on Sunday, March 12, 2023.
Soludo says Emefiele personally confirmed the directive to him
Governor Soludo in his statement said that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, personally confirmed the decision to him during a telephone conversation on Sunday night and therefore advised Anambra residents to freely accept and transact their businesses with the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes as well as the new notes.
- The statement from Governor Soludo reads, ‘’Commercial banks have been directed by the Central Bank to dispense old currency notes and to also receive same as deposits from customers.
- ‘’Tellers at 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 old notes.
- ‘’Anambra State Government will not only report such a bank to the CBN but will also immediately shut down the defaulting branch.”
For the records
Despite the Supreme Court’s judgement on March 3, 2023, which nullified the naira redesign policy of the CBN, and ordered that the old naira notes should remain in circulation until December 31, 2023, the federal government and the apex bank had remained silent on the ruling with the naira scarcity biting harder.
There were reports of some commercial banks dispensing the old notes last week, but traders and businesses refused to collect these old notes, saying that there has not been any official directive to that effect from the federal government and the CBN.
The state governments which had taken the federal government to court over the naira redesign policy are reported to have given the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, and Godwin Emefiele, till Tuesday to comply with the order of the Supreme Court on the currency.
The state governments threatened to file contempt charges against the two top officials on Tuesday should they fail to obey the apex court which ordered that the old N1,000, N500 and N200 should be in circulation alongside the new notes till December 31, 2023.