Amid a scarcity of new notes, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched a portal to enable bank customers to deposit their old naira notes. The CBN provided a link on its website titled “Redemption of Currency,” which allows Nigerians to redeem their old notes.
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the continued use of N200 notes as legal tender across Nigeria, but the CBN’s directive to phase out the old N500 and N1000 notes remains in effect. To deposit their old N1000, N500, and N200 notes into their bank accounts, customers are instructed to create a profile on the portal, generate a reference number, and print out a receipt.
They should then proceed to the nearest CBN branch with the printout. The profile creation process involves filling a form and providing the bank verification number, email address, phone number, bank account details, depositor information (including house address), and the total amount of the denomination to be redeemed. The portal can only be accessed through the CBN website.
The CBN has specified that the “condition for redemption of currency” must be fulfilled to complete this process. According to the central bank, depositors can only access the redemption window once, and beneficiary accounts will only receive value after successful processing of the deposited cash and verification of submitted documents.
The notice also stated that depositors cannot recover the value of any mutilated or imperfect notes from the bank, and the refunding of such notes will be at the absolute discretion of the bank.
Depositors can track their transactions’ status on the portal provided, and all deposits will be handled in accordance with relevant laws. After completing the form, a reference number is generated to indicate which of the central banks depositors should go to for depositing the old notes.
Last Friday, the National Council of State recommended that the CBN take aggressive action in implementing the new naira policy by urgently making more new notes available.
Source: Premium Times