Rural residents’ concerns about using the new naira notes before the old notes stop being legal money on January 31 were allayed by CBN on Friday in Abuja.
It announced that, in order to increase collection of the redesigned naira notes, it would start a currency swap scheme on Monday in rural and underserved areas of the nation.
The launch, it continued, was motivated by the desire to increase the options for rural and underserved areas to exchange their naira notes.
Super agents and Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) would collaborate on the launch.
According to the CBN, “It enables citizens in rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial services to exchange old naira notes for the redesigned ones.
“The old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes can be exchanged for the redesigned notes or existing lower denominations of N100, N50 and N20 which remain legal tender.
“The super agents can exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person, while amounts above M10,000 shall be treated as cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy.
“Bank Verification Number, National Identification Number or Voter’s Card details of the customer should be captured as much as possible,’’
It further stated that DMBs were required to verify that only Automated Teller Machines were used for the issue of the new notes.
The directive was also specified to make sure that the new currency notes are distributed in a fair, open, and uniform manner throughout the nation.
Malam Haruna Mustapha, Director of the CBN’s Banking Supervision Department, and Malam Musa Jimoh, Director of the CBN’s Payment System Management Department, jointly signed the statement.