New naira notes: Ogun residents worry over January 31st deadline, CBN douses fears
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday doused the fears of residents of Ogun state over the January 31st deadline for the deposit of the N200, N500 and N1, 000 naira notes.
The residents, during a sensitization programme by the CBN at the popular Lafenwa Market in Abeokuta on the new currency had expressed fear that a category of the population of the state, particularly the aged do not have a bank account but only save their money at home, hence, they will be deprived of changing their old money to the new.
But the CBN Abeokuta Branch Controller, Wahab Lanre Oseni while responding to questions from the market women and men noted that commercial banks will be available to open free accounts for the concerned persons which will require no document but only their names and addresses.
The Branch Manager stressed that the apex bank’s governor, Godwin Emefiele had supplied sufficient cash to all commercial banks across the nation for circulation of the new currency, and advised the residents to without delay visit their various banks to change the old notes before the deadline.
He debunked speculation that the CBN will consider extending the date of the deadline for the authenticity of the old naira note, saying that CBN is not considering extending the date.
Oseni equally reiterated the CBN’s threat to sanction any banks who still releases the old currencies after the January 31st deadline.
His words “The governor and his team have supplied more cash to branches of CBN and from yesterday, sufficient cash is now available in all the commercial banks so that they will be penalized wherever they use old notes. Any bank that is found still bringing it out will be penalized
“One of the reasons why the naira was redesigned is the poor handling of the notes. Also, what it cost CBN and the federal government to mint notes cost a lot. For example, the amount it costs to print N 1000 is higher than that amount, the same thing with others and that will not be a good thing for an economy.”
He also hinted that poor handling of the money by Nigerians and high cost of mint were parts of reasons the CBN and the federal government considered redesigning the currencies.
He said “Part of the reason why we spend a lot on that is poor handling of the cash itself by the public. That is why we won’t stop sensitisation until Nigerians imbibe a better way of handling money so the two major reasons are those faking the notes and poor handling and as well as higher cost causing CBN to change the notes.
“Even when people imbibe the usage of less cash, we are now advising the public to see the opportunity of e channels of payment. We have told the people to always save whatever the money they are collecting in the bank.
“We have also made them understand that no bank will charge anything on any amount they save as on January 31st it is from January one that there will be charges,”he added.
