Confusion As CBN Bans Withdrawal of New Naira Notes Over the Counter, Cash Withdrawal Policy Kicks Off Monday
- The Central bank of Nigeria has published yet another new policy connected to the new notes
- This time, commercial banks have been instructed to halt issuing new notes to customers over the counter.
- The CBN also wants banks to only load new notes into ATMs, which is anticipated to cause a lot of confusion
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed deposit money banks to stop issuing new naira notes within the banking hall.
Customers who now want cash from the banks will be issued the old banknotes which are expected to stop being legal tender on Thursday, January 31, 2022.
The directive is poised to cause another dilemma in the banking industry since the deadline for old naira notes to cease being legal tender is only a few days away.
Source: Getty Images
According to a Punch report on Saturday, the CBN issued circulars to banks, directing them to only load their ATMs with the new naira notes, banning withdrawal of the new currencies over the counter.
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The directive was leaked by an unnamed Tier-1 bank’s Group Head, Retail Operation.
Punch noted that the title of the memo is "Urgent update on currency redesign’.
The bank managers have also sent their staff a memo informing them of the CBN directives.
The memo reads:
“The CBN has mandated that we immediately stop the Over-the-Counter payment of the new N200, N500 & N,1000 currency. Instead, all new notes should be loaded into the ATMs for customer withdrawals.
“This is effective immediately please."
The source who shared the memo went further to state that:
“We got a memo from the head office this morning (Thursday) that we should stop dispensing new notes to customers who come to withdraw over the counter, but instead we should load the ATMs with the new notes. The correspondence from the head office said the directive was from the CBN and that we should implement it immediately.
“The directive has, however, thrown us into a dilemma as we are in short supply of the new notes and we can’t afford not to load the ATMs as there has been a surge in the number of customers coming to withdraw after the Yuletide holidays.”
ATM not accepting all new naira notes
The bank manager further revealed that only one denomination of the new naira notes currently passed the test of dispensing via ATMs.
The source noted that
“Loading of ATMs is the responsibility of the banks. When our bank tested the ATMs, only one denomination of the new notes passed the test of dispensing seamlessly through our machines.
“If you observed, a lot of ATMs were inactive during the Christmas and New Year holidays. The idea was not to give out old notes, but unfortunately, the new ones are not in circulation.
Cash withdrawal policy
The CBN cash withdrawal policy is set to begin implementation on Monday, January 9, 2023.
According to a circular by CBN seen by Legit.ng, the new policy which was revised now allows individuals to withdraw up to N500,000 weekly and organizations, N5 million weekly. The initial limit was N100,000 for individuals.
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Source: Legit.ng
