The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has embarked on “cash swap exercise” to satisfy petty traders who cannot deposit their old Naira notes with commercial banks before Jan. 31 deadline.
Mr Sunny Daibo, leader of the sensitisation team of the apex bank and representative of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele disclosed this to newsmen on Friday in Effurun, Delta.
Daibo also the CBN’s Deputy Director of Finance, said the essence of the exercise was among others to encourage those without bank accounts to open one.
“The petty traders bring their old Naira notes within the range of N10,000, we collect from them and give them the new notes,” he said.
The team leader who expressed displeasure over the attitude of the people towards embracing the cashless policy of the Federal Government declared that there would be no extension of the deadline on the deposition of the old Naira notes.
“As at today, no going back on the Jan. 31 deadline. Take your money to the bank and do your transaction online.
“Nigerians always wait till the last minute. This thing has been on since November. CBN says go and deposit your money in the bank. Some people will like to wait till the last minute,” he said.
Daibo said that the cashless policy would help in the efficient monetary policy management and by implications growth of the economy.
According to him, other benefits of the policy included: eliminating corruption; reducing counterfeiting; reducing criminalities, discouraged stocking money at home, among others.
“There are so many advantages to the cashless policy, gradually, we will get there.
The policy is for the benefit of Nigerians. The cost of managing currency is enormous.
“We cannot continue to do things in the old ways and expect different results. We must do something in new ways. With this policy, every Nigerian can now open bank account easily,” he said.
Daibo said that there was also a misconception that when a customer deposits certain amount of old Naira notes, the person is expected to withdrew same amount in the new redesigned notes.
“If you deposit the old notes, the new cash withdrawal policy will be applied which is N500,000 weekly for individuals and N5 million for corporate bodies.
“The people are complaining that they are not seeing the new Naira notes,” he said.
Daibo said that the sensitisation team will visit Warri North and Warri South-West on Saturday in continuation of the awareness campaign.
The team would also visit churches on Sunday to enlighten worshippers on the essence of the cashless policy.
The team had visited Warri South, Udu and Uvwie Local Government Areas to educate the people on the need to deposit their old Naira notes before Jan. 31.
The crowd that had earlier besieged most of the banks had gradually reduced, except the very few ones with few branches in the Warri metropolis.
