The officials at work.
‘CBN has enough new Naira notes given to commercial banks that will take care of the demands of customers’
By Ahmed Ahmed
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and anti-graft agencies have enforced the circulation of new naira notes on commercial banks and their agents in Bauchi State.
The agencies include Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).
During the monitoring exercise of the commercial banks on Wednesday, Dr Elizabeth Kwaghe, the deputy director, Currency Operations CBN, said that they were in the banks to monitor and ensure adequate circulation of new naira currency.
She explained that they check records of disbursement of the new notes by the banks and agents and the stocking of the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) with the new currency in the state.
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She said that CBN in collaboration with EFCC and ICPC embarked on monitoring of banks to ensure implementation of guidelines on disbursement of new naira notes to customers.
“The essence of the exercise is to ensure banks dispense new notes via Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and agents to complement over-the-counter transactions and increase the circulation of the redesigned notes,” she said.
She expressed dismay with some banks in the state for not complying with the disbursement of the new naira notes allocated to them by CBN.
“We will not tolerate hoarding the new naira notes or else severe sanctions will be taken against any bank hoarding the new currency notes.
“Any commercial bank which failed to collect its allocations of the new currency notes or flout the directives on its distribution will be sanctioned.
“CBN has enough new Naira notes given to commercial banks that will take care of the demands of customers,” Kwaghe said.
Kwaghe expressed dismay that in some banks only one or two ATMs dispensed the new currency notes, thus forcing customers to be on a long queue.
She urged customers to make good use of the opportunity of extending the deposit deadline to Feb. 10 to swap their old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes.
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