'Fill the form' - CBN opens portal Nigerians to return old naira notes, commercial banks are rejecting

The Central Bank of Nigeria has told Nigerians who still have the old N1000, N500, and N200 notes to visit any branches across the country to deposit them.

On Monday, February 13, 2023, Haladu Idris Andaza, CBN's Branch Controller in Bauchi, informed the press that, despite a pending Supreme Court ruling, the old naira notes were no longer legal tender from February 10, 2023.

He, however, reiterated the promise from Godwin Emefiele that no Nigerian would lose their money.

Steps to return cash to CBN

Speaking on how Nigerians can return the old notes, Andaza further explained that: "The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there relating this currency redesign and exchange.

"After completing the form, you generate a code, which you either print or bring with you on your mobile phone, and you give us the code and the information contained within.

You must fill out the form with basic information about yourself, your account information, and the amount you wish to deposit.

"When you are done, you visit our branches with the code as well as the money, we will received, processed, and confirmed the legitimacy or otherwise of the money to prevent getting fake notes because there are some fake notes in circulation presently."

Tribune reports that the CBN Bauchi head stressed that internal checks will be conducted before collecting old naira notes, His words: "We will receive the money from you and do our internal checks before we give you an acknowledgement which is evidence to show that we have collected that amount from you and we go ahead with our internal processes, after finishing with the internal processes, we now hit your account and credit it through your Commercial bank.

"All commercial banks are required to deliver all old notes deposited with us, and we will collect, that is the final. Some banks have begun depositing with us because they want to close their books; once that is done, they will no longer collect from customers; this is why the CBN decided to open this portal for the general public, particularly the vulnerable, who are still having problems with cash used for trading and now that the deadline has passed, they must deposit their money."

"The CBN is trying to minimize the risk of losing that money, we are also trying to minimize the hardship, we know that people are having some hardship, people are suffering, we are not unmindful of that fact, that is why the CBN's management has magnanimously decided to open that portal to assist those who were unable to deposit the money into their bank accounts, that is our process flow in a nutshell."

According to Andaza the portal will be there, opened for some time, depending on the circumstances and the directives from the management.

"We anticipate that individuals will be able to deposit the old naira notes with us during this time period; it is a privilege granted to Nigerians to guarantee that their money is deposited even if it is no longer legal tender.

"We went around nearly all the villages in Bauchi state with certain commercial banks encouraging people to create accounts, which many of them did and were able to deposit their money; I wonder if there are still individuals who have not keyed into the system currently who are still holding old money.

“We used the media, the NOA, and traditional rulers to inform the public that there is no limit on the amount that can be placed as long as the form is correctly completed.

"There are several firewalls that can safeguard anybody using the portal, therefore there is no need for concern."