The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has appealed to banks and members of the public to cooperate with the apex bank to enhance the cash swap policy ahead of the fresh deadline for the return of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes.
The CBN called for the cooperation of banks and members of the public for an effective cash swap policy.
The CBN Director of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, made the appeal while fielding questions from journalists in Umuahia, after touring Abia hinterlands to monitor the availability of the new banknotes through cash swap.
Both urban and rural dwellers have been facing difficulties accessing the new notes as banks still load their ATMs with the old notes while cash swap agents were not receiving adequate amounts of the new notes for the rural people.
“We need to understand that this is our country and it is incumbent on all of us to make this thing(currency redesign policy) work.
“A situation where we have over N2.76 trillion or 84.5 percent of the money in circulation outside of the banking system is not healthy for our economy,” Nwanisobi said.
The CBN spokesman emphasised that the cooperation of bank staff, in particular, was needed, “because the success of this policy depends on their attitude and how they conduct themselves.”
“We don’t want a situation where they hoard the new notes and then give to priority (special) customers,” he said, adding, “Nigerians have the right to have access to the new notes.”
The CBN team had at the weekend intensified the awareness campaign in the rural areas of Abia State focusing on cash swap which was targeted at making the new notes available to people with no access to banking services.
Operating in four teams, the CBN officials went into the local governments of Abia and monitored the cash swap implementation while also distributing hand bills and posters to further create awareness of the new notes.
The teams also met with the agents and encouraged them to ensure that they abide by the directives of exchanging the old notes for the new ones and not to use cash swap as an opportunity to make more money at the expense of the people.
