BY: News Peddlers
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| CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele |
The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks to stop paying customers in old N1,000, N500, and N200 notes as the new deadline for the phase-out of old naira notes approaches.
In a statement, CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said the central bank was working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to ensure that all banks followed the directive.
"We deployed all of our staff, particularly the assistant directors, deputy directors, and directors in Abuja, to all CBN branches nationwide to participate in the mass mobilisation campaign and monitoring programmes, working with deposit money banks, agents, and our branch controllers across the 36 states of the federation," Mr Emefiele said.
"We have agreed with the executive chairsmen of the EFCC and ICPC to assist us by sending their staff to all CBN and DMB branches nationwide to join in monitoring the implementation of these guidelines," the CBN governor added. "The goal is to ensure that the guidelines are followed."
The order came as Nigerians were struggling to withdraw the new naira notes. President Muhammadu Buhari's administration had set January 31 as the deadline for replacing old banknotes with new ones. The deadline has been pushed back.