The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed its offices across the country to continue printing old and new naira notes to deposit money banks in large volumes.
News About Nigeria gathered this decision comes in the wake of claims of cash scarcity in key cities, despite previous promises from the CBN regarding adequate cash availability.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) emphasised in a statement signed by its Director of Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, that all naira notes issued by the bank are legal cash and should not be rejected by anybody.
“We wish to state unambiguously that every banknote issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria remains legal tender and should not be rejected by anyone, as stipulated in Section 20(5) of the CBN Act, 2007,” the bank said in a statement.
The CBN has urged its branches across the country to continue issuing different denominations of old and redesigned banknotes to deposit money banks (DMBS) for onward distribution to bank clients to guarantee the seamless circulation of cash.
“We reaffirm that there is sufficient stock of currency notes to facilitate normal economic activities,” the statement went on to say.
To lessen dependency on physical currency, the CBN has pushed people to use alternative payment methods like as electronic transfers and mobile money.
Days back, there were rumours that Nigerians in some particular states were beginning to ‘panic-withdraw’ cash from ATMs and bank cashiers.
These panic withdrawals were attributed to the information that circulated that come December old notes would stop being legal tenders and cash scarcity would commence once again.
However, the CBN came out to debunk the rumour of cash scarcity, stating that there is enough cash to circulate within December.
